One Last Time
by Vermouth19
Summary: The rebellion failed and soon The Fourth Quartel Quell will begin. Team StarKid members from different districts were reaped and there will be two victors this year, only they should be from the same district. May the odds be ever in your favor! Warning for super angst, it's Hunger Games after all!
1. Chapter 1 - I Got You

A/N : Hi there! This is my first fanfiction based on Hunger Games and if you notice the names I 'cross over' it with Team Starkid. This is new for me so please give a review and your opinion if I should continue this, pretty please? :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or Team Starkid, sadly.

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**District 11**

"Get up, you fool!" shouted a Peacekeeper to a poor old lady that accidentally dropped her basket full of apples they just harvested. The other workers gritted their teeth as he yelled inappropriate words to the elder but didn't dare to do anything.

"I'm sorry," she cried, trying to gather the apples that scattered in the ground with her shaking hands. The man quickly lost his patience and pulled out his iron bar from the belt.

"Please don't!"

A girl with long brown hair stepped out from the line behind them and began to swoop the remaining apples on the ground onto the old woman's bucket.

"Well then, move it! The shipment should be on schedule!"

She glared coldly at him while she helped the lady stood with her shaky leg. A bruise started to appear in her ankle.

"Don't, Jule. You will be in trouble," the old woman whispered nervously, noticed her hard expression.

"Don't worry about me, Ma'am," Julia assured her with a tiny smile.

She put her arms above hers and support most of her light weight. With the other hand, she tried to lift the basket but realised it was too heavy.

"I said move it!" He threaten as he once more rise the iron bar.

Suddenly someone snatched the basket from her and quietly signaled them to follow him.

She never been so glad to see Darren until that moment.

They went directly to the storage house and after giving the baskets to a worker who was in charge and their shift was over, Julia and Darren accompanied Mrs. Finnigan back to her house.

"I couldn't thank you enough for what you two just did for me. Thank you, my dear," she said weakly after they helped her lie onto the bed.

"It's nothing, Mrs. Finnigan. However you should have your ankle checked later. It looks pretty bad," Julia said, watched her leg in concern.

Mrs. Finnigan waved her hand as if it was nothing to be afraid of. "I'm fine, it's just a mere bruise. You two, however, should go home right now. Tomorrow will be... a big day for both of you. I wish the odds are in your favor," she said with a sad smile.

As if a weight had dropped onto their stomach, Darren and Julia were taken aback by that statement. That's right; they totally forgot about it.

Tomorrow would be the Reaping Day.

They excused themselves quickly and went back home. The sky already turned red and the street light was being lit up by District 11 citizen. On the way back, the Square was being given its last touch by the Peacekeepers. The stage stood proudly or even cockily; a place that presented numerous innocent children of District 11 to the slaughter.

"You are quiet today. Something's wrong?" Darren asked as they walked across the Square.

Julia walked in silence for a moment. Her voice was trembling when she finally spoke. "Every year, I tried to put a brave act when the reaping begun. I just... What if they picked me this year? I know this would be our last reaping, but I had 24 tesserae this year! Imagining myself, or you, standing in that podium; I don't want to die in that..."

Darren cut her by pulling her shaking body close to his. Her bestfriend gave her a stern look and with a clear voice said, "Jule, this will be our last year in that tesserae. We can go through this, okay?"

She bit her lips as she laid her head onto his shoulder. A single tear dropped onto his shoulder but he didn't mind. He knew exactly how she felt for he felt the same too, having 30 tesserae for his parents and older brother.

"I got you, don't worry," he said once again, but they both knew it was a lie.

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Well, should I continue this? I'll update soon if I got reviews so please do!


	2. Chapter 2 - Victor's Blood

A/N** :** Thanks **Emily** and **MegGiry-TheAlbino** for the review! I was in the middle of exam and your kind words push me to write this as soon as I can, sorry for the long delay though.

Now, before I make you all root for Disctrict 11, let me introduce our dear StarKid member Joey Richter! I am planning to do it slowly so there will be more of Joey, and Darren-Julia in the future, yay! I make Joey's personality looks more like Bug rather than himself so it would be a bit OOC, hope that's okay for you guys :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or Team Starkid, sadly.

**District 4**

Joey returned to his house at Victor's Village slowly, grimacing everytime he stepped his sore legs onto the hard ground beneath him. However, his mind could not wondering back to the conversation with his mentor earlier, making him forgot the physical pain that could not compare to his mental's.

His training with Finnick Odair, privately that day, was not pleasant for neither of them. The mentor had dragged him out from his usual group and insisted on private and probably his last training in District 4. The other boys patted his back as he walked passed them, encouraging him quietly with pats on his back. Joey sighed heavily and followed the former Hunger Games victor to a more private room beside the great hall.

The room they were headed to was not big but still sufficient for them. There was a big mat in the middle, racks for swords and knifes at the side, and body pads for sparring safety beside the door. After the door was closed and the atmosphere became quieter, Joey followed Finnick to the center of the room and waited. Waited for whatever he was going to be prepared for tomorrow event.

"How are you feeling, Richter?" he asked, observe him carefully.

"Been better," was all he could muttered quietly without looking at those eyes.

Finnick sighed. "Look at me."

The request hanged without a response for a moment before the teenager in front of him raised his head slowly and met him.

"You can do this," he said sternly. "You have been trained for almost your lifetime while the others don't. The odds are very good and you should know that."

"How do you know that?" Joey's passiveness suddenly crumbled and was replaced by pure panic. "Even I don't know if I can survive the bloodbath, or getting sponsors, or be able to look at their eyes when I must take their life!" He laughed dryly. "You should probably change your training method and make us become a killing machine like One and Two instead, so this stupid thing called heart can't feel anything when I get blood in my hands," he murmured the last one mostly to himself but of course Finnick could hear it.

"It may become a great weakness, I know that," there was a hint of gried, "but if I must train children to their own death then I will lead them there as a normal human being."

Joey almost laughed sarcastically. "I don't feel 'normal' at all, if you ask me."

To his surprise, Finnick laughed at that. "Me neither, but do you know who made that statement?" he asked suddenly.

Joey sighed again and shook his head.

"Your mother."

His heart missed a beat as he try to process the words. "My... my mother?"

Finnick smiled warmly while he massage his neck tiredly. "Yep. She was my mentor back then, I think it was about time you know this. The night before the game, I asked the same question to her; what is the point of training days and nights if you don't even have the guts to do it?"

"She was a very quiet and low profile person, but that night she gave me words that opened my eyes and made me go through until the end. Don't get the wrong idea from it. I, like her, didn't say that having a heart can turn to some kind of a disadvantage; but a pride that the moment a knife was put in your neck and you know it was the end for you, you will die as yourself instead of one of Capitol's pion."

"I am not a naive person and neither are you. Killing someone is out of the question, it is a stupid decision to go down without a fight. So that's why I taught all of you to always aim the vital organs. You are doing the other tribute's favor by doing it quickly and not as a cow to be played with before taking him to the slaughter."

Joey was still lost in his own thought even after Finnick was done speaking. There was barely a memory about her in his memory, since the big storm that took her mother away from her two years old son. His father mourned since then and could not bring her up in any kind of conversation, not even for him. The only information that he gathered from people in the district about her is that she was the 58th Hunger Games, Finnick's earlier statement clarified her introvert personality and because of that not many people knew more than the surface. These new information about her and those strong words made him burst with proud to have such an amazing person as his mother.

Finnick watched him carefully and saw the warmth slowly filled his eyes. Poor boy, he taught. To lost his mother when he was still a little and then burdened with the cruel term of Victor's Blood that guaranteed the person to enter the game no matter how little the tessarae he take. He was grateful that the boy in front of him did not crumbled under those pressure, instead grew to be one of his best student since the day he trained the future tributes. Martha Richter was a very lucky mother to have him as her child.

"Thanks, Odair," Joey said with an honest smile peace in his tone.

"No problem, kid. Now, I know you want to know more about her and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you earlier, but if you really want to then make sure you get back here as a victor and I promise I won't stop talking about her until you got bored to death. Is that clear?" His voice was dead serious but even he could not suppress a small smile after Joey's face was lit with a new form of courage.

"I will, don't worry," Joey said, sounded sure for the first time since they walked into the room.

"Good. Now get your pads and let's practice all those empty hands combat moves."

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Sorry if there are many mistakes I did there, my first language is not English and I would be grateful if you help me :) Cheers! Oh and don't forget to review :D


	3. Chapter 3 - No Room For Weakness

A/N : Thanks a bunch for another review from _MegGiry-TheAlbino_ (thanks a lot, really! but seriously if you found errors please let me know ;D ) and _RavenclawStarshipRanger_ (Thanks, glad you think that way)! Oh and Merry Christmas to you all! Cnnsider this chapter as a Christmas present from me ;)

Move on to District One. Dunno why but everytime I think of that place Brian Holden and Devin Lytle always popped in head, soo there you go. Again, sorry for a bit OOC there, couldn't find a proper way to slip jokes on this angsty fic :( I added Brian's weakness after rewatching Starship, you know, where he smoke pots. I also hope that you'll find a bit reference of AVPSY here, if you haven't read it then do it now. Yes. Now!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or Team StarKid, sadly.

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**District One**

Brian punched one of the training dummy and jumped behind the next one, as if dodging invisible enemies in the empty training center. With his sai swords he slashed the target's vital marks and never missed them, not even once.

_Who do you think you are, thinking about volunteering for the game?_

Everybody else had gone home at five after the daily training is over. Most of them tried to spend this important night with their family before The Reaping tomorrow; the fact that it could be their last night with them could not be ignored easily, however prestigious the game is.

Such a moment that he longed to happen but instead was ruined by his own father.

_You are not ready!_

He jabbed one of the dummy several times at the heart until it made a big hole on the chest. Each stab was done in pure hatred toward his father.

_If you lose, you are going to be an embarrassment for our district._

Brian kept rolling among the dummies, throwing random but accurate stabs and punches at them. Some of them had their limbs destroyed already.

_It's that girl, isn't it?_

He barely registered the throbbing ache on his hands and legs, and his tired heart from such an intense activity. His lungs had protested himself since the morning training, but now the anger and adrenaline dulled all his sense of pain.

_I'm not going to let that district loser make my son died in the game because he's got blinded with stupid love._

He finally settled in front of the only dummy that had not been ruined yet and Brian immediately jabbed his sai onto the lung mark, making a small but deadly through and through hole.

_Not to mention your illness._

He stabbed the heart.

_On second thought, don't bother to join it at all. District One tributes _never_ got killed on Bloodbath and should remain that way._

He stabbed the neck.

_Because with that disabled lungs of yours, you will unlikely survive it._

With his sai sword still stuck on the dummy's neck, he pulled it hard and decapitated the head easily.

He watched the head rolled to his feet before he dropped his sai swords, making a cloud clang sound in that dead calm room and collapsed onto the floor. Brian did not know how long he was lying in the floor; all he cared was getting as much oxygen as possible for his exhausted lungs.

Another stab of anger, this time toward himself, made him gritted his jaw and held his teary eyes from spilling his tears. He blamed the previous escort that took Crystal's name out of hundreds worthless name from the bowl. He blamed the other girls for not taking her place. He blamed his fellow male rookie for making him got rejected from taking the place along with her, that in the end that guy could not protect her. But most of all, he blamed himself for being too weak to prevent it from the start.

* * *

_"Crystal Dravite."_

_"NO!" Brian did not remember he ever screamed that loud until that day. He __was __unconsciously moving forward until a few strong arms of Peacekeepers shoved him back to the line. From the other side of the square, a blond girl slowly separated herself from the other girls and before the Peacekeepers escorted her, Brian saw her throwing a small smile to his direction. He did not miss the glimpse of fear on those eyes when his eyes met her._

_She stood still beside her escort, Mallory Kline, and __while__ he picked the name from the male tribute bowl._

_"Glint Amethyst."_

_"I volunteer!" Brian quickly yelled, but soon noticed that he was not the only one that did it. Fellow and older rookies such as Silver and Dash stepped outside the line to join him. The district council, including his father as one of the trainer, discuss their candidacy for only God knew how long since he could not think of anything else but Crystal. When Kline went back to the microphone and announced the result, he could feel his heart __stopped beating__._

_"We had discussed this matter and unanimously decided that Silver Aventurine will replace Glint Amethyst as this year tribute."_

_It took three Peacekeepers to hold him from tearing the council apart, only able to give a deathly glare at each of them, especially his father who gave him __a strong __disapproving look. After the __song __anthem finished and the tributes were led away from the audience, he shoved the Peacekeepers that held him and ran to follow the group to the Mayor's Hall for private farewell with the family. Outside the room where Crystal was, he waited while her parents were inside. Few moments later, they came out and he stepped inside. For once he completely ignore__d__ their presence and pitiful look on him and burst in._

_His heart was tore apart when he finally saw her._

_Her usually bright blue eyes were bloodshot. Tears glistening on her beautiful face. His calm, cheerful appearance was replaced by pure panic._

_"Crystal..."_

_Brian could not finish his word as Crystal threw herself onto his arm and just wept. He just stood there and accept__ed__ it for her, did not even realise that he cried with her too._

_"I'm so sorry I..."_

_"Not your fault," she mumbled onto his ear. _

_He quickly pulled her from him and look__ed__ at his girlfriend as if trying to memorize her since the first time they met, how she was the only one who stayed with him when his lungs collapsed at the training. The only one that did not mocked his illness or as the other said his weakness. The only one in the district that did not deserve to be in that room._

_"Make an alliance with Two and Four, they will bought you some time until the other weak districts got killed. When you see the opening, break the alliance and run, try to hide until the game ends. Don't bring Glint with you, he's a selfish bastard who can't be trusted. Look for..."_

_Crystal's squeezed on his hand stopped him. _

_"I know, Brian. We have been trained, remember?" _

_God knew she was trying to be brave for both of them, but in the end she could not hide her fear. _

_He brushed the remaining tears from her face and with a forced smile said, "Don't cry, District One never cried when they got reaped and we need still those sponsors."_

_Suddenly the door behind them was slammed and Peacekeepers strode in to take her __to the train__. Crystal grabbed his face and gave him a quick kiss on the lip before she was pushed away from Brian._

_"I love you, Brian..." she whispered only to be heard by him, and then she was gone from his sight and soon, life._

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"Holden!"

Brian did not recall when he fainted but a familiar sound blast onto his head and slowly he tried to open his eyes. Devin Lytle was the first thing he saw, she was towering him so that means he was still on the ground.

His chest felt as if an elephant sat on him. The raspy breath had not gone yetnot o mention his body now soaked in cold sweat. Devin helped him sit so he could breathe easier that way.

"What are you doing here at this hour? Scratch that, are you _crazy_?!"

He used the excuse to breathe to avoid the question, which was not entirely a lie.

"You're not going to compete for the Hunger Games so why bother..."

"I will volunteer tomorrow, Lytle, whether you like it or not," he cut her with poisonous tone in his word.

"Don't be stupid, Holden. This year is not your year yet to play."

"Just like last year wasn't yours too?" he spat angrily at her. Her face appeared as if he had slapped her but Brian could not care even less. After his girlfriend died at the game, he started to hate every girl in his age for not volunteering last year. That was no exception for Devin Lytle, the District One boys' dream girl.

"You can't blame me, or the other girl for not taking Crystal's place. We weren't ready last..."

"You think she was?" Brian forced himself to stand, rejected Devin's help and now was facing her. "How many of you who are much older and are readier than her? Your chance to survive was bigger than her!"

Nobody talked for a moment. Devin stood silently beside him, watching him letting his emotion exploded after all the stress he took this year. Everybody noticed how drastically he had changed since last year's game. She did not know much about him except the fact that he was one of the trainer's son. He was not the best among them since the asthma always limited his condition but one thing for sure, nobody could beat him in sai sword as if they were part of his limbs. She was not that close to Crystal either but she was a bit shy and very polite girl, unlike the other girls from District One who usually act like princesses. No wonder she got his attention in the first place. Devin remembered how happy he was when he twirled his sai in front of Crystal, plotting a polite show off to get her heart. He did it and the following year was their happiest moment ever.

That was until she got reaped.

Brian was still gasping for air for a moment after his burst of anger. As soon as the pain in his chest and head lessen, shame started to burden him. Asking for someone else to die for his girlfriend sounded a bit selfish if it was not too much. He knew he was desperate finding someone to blame but in the end it was pointless.

"I'm sorry, that was rude," he said slowly. Once again he laid back his exhausted body onto the cold floor and closed his eyes for a moment, letting the guilt washed him out. He heard movements that told him that Devin was doing the same thing.

"It's alright, you got the point though. However, you can't just blame yourself and stormed out for the game like that. This is a matter of live and dead."

"I just can't stand living peacefully here while she died because I wasn't there when Twelve murdered her." He hissed the last part in pure hatred.

"The guy's been dead for a year. What do you want to do if you get reaped? Killed the new ones?"

"You bet I will, have to teach them a lesson not to messing around with One."

He heard her sighed tiredly from his side. "Well, we're not just kid anymore. If that's what you want then do it. I can only hope that you don't get reaped in the first place so there will be time for you to think this carefully before it's too late."

After that, they just laid there until the night curfew went on and they were forced to get back home. On the way, even before he stepped outside the training center, he already made up his mind that no matter what will happen tomorrow he would volunteer and would not take _No_ as an answer. Not this time. Even if his chance of survival was slim, he would not go down without a fight and especially not until he killed all the District Twelve's tributes himself.

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Do you have any favorite going-to-be-tributes yet? Let me know so I can decide what to do with them mwuahahaha.. Thanks for reading and you know what you have to do to make me write faster ;)


	4. Chapter 4 - Gryffindor For The Brave

A/N : I never thought I could finish this THIS soon, Christmas spirit all the way :D

**Vuraangreg** : Cool! I have a great plan for them in the future chapter ;)

I put Lang's brother in District 8 (Textile) since Nick was designing the puppets for Starship and by that was the closest choice among the other member. Warning, the dose of angst is a bit higher in this chapter (sorry!)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or Team Starkid

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**District 8**

"Welcome, and Happy Hunger Games! I'm so excited to be here and I think you all know why. That's right, this year is going to be The Fourth Quartel Quell!"

This year District 8's escort, Tyler Brunsman, probably a bit too eager from the usual standard and this annoyed Nick so much. That man wore a silly too-bright-yellow suit that matched with a yellow bowler hat that, if possible, looked more ridiculous that the suit itself. His makeup did not look even better, the fact that he used too much powder all over his face made him looked like a snowman in yellow theme. And he thought last year's escort was terrible!

Nick did not listen most of his babbling; all his attention was at the trembling, soaked wet hand in his. His younger brother, Matt, could not stop the tremor all over his body since the beginning of the ceremony. He could not blame him for he was also hiding his fright for his brother's sake. Experiencing The Reaping several times until today did not help them overcome the fear, if not getting worse. He still had one more year to go while Matt got two.

"Relax, bro," he whispered, tucking his hand to distract Matt from Brunsman's word. "It's just going to be another year like the previous one. Once he finished talking, you can go back writing your Potter Musical and maybe I'll consider on helping you with it, how's that sound?"

Matt gave him a nervous little smile to him but still locking his eyes to the stage. Nick sighed tiredly and soon copying his brother.

"Since this year's so special, there has been a slight change of rule. Instead of one winner, President Snow was kind enough to change it to two just for this year Quarter Quell, that's if the remaining tributes left are both come from the same district. Isn't this exciting?" Brunsman chirped as if this was a reality show. "Oh, but there's a little twist here. We won't accept volunteers this year, please remind that one before we start the reaping."

His stomach as if sunk to his feet when Nick heard the last part. _No need to worry_, he denied himself quickly. They won't get reaped this year_, right_?

"Well, enough for the chit chat. Let's get into the main event, shall we? As usual, ladies first."

Nick's heart became erratic as Brunsman walked toward the first bowl filled with the girl's names. He could only hope he did not pick one of his or Matt's friends or classmate. It was soon proved that today was not Matt's lucky day.

"Arielle Goldman."

Matt tightening his grip as he was eyeing the poor girl walked slowly to the stage. She seemed so little that moment; clearly scare started to overwhelm her post shock appearance. He heard a loud sob from the adult line; probably her parents. It was wrenching his heart to hear someone who close to her but could not do anything to prevent it.

"She was supposed to be Lily Potter in the musical," Matt choked in horror, almost cried as he eyeing her all the time. Nick squeezed his hand since he could not possibly say to reassure him.

"Lovely, lovely! You'll do great this year, darling," Brunsman greeted her when she reached the stage. She did not say anything instead bowing her head to hide her too-obvious cry.

"Now, let's move on to the boys."

Matt's grip almost crushed his hand, but he did not care.

_Not Matt, please let it be someone else but Matt._ He repeated the mantra over and over again until Brunsman read the name from a piece of paper he just took.

"Nick Lang."

Nick felt like he was in trans. Everybody's eyes were on him. Cold slowly crept all over his body. His heart forgot to beat for a moment. The only thing that he saw but did not register is that he did not felt Matt's hand on his anymore, only to realise that his brother was moving in front of him and screaming words he cannot understand for a moment.

". . . told you that we don't accept volunteers."

Brunsman's words slapped him back to reality as he quickly grabbed Matt's shoulder before the Peacekeepers use violent against him. "Matt, MATT!"

"Nick . . ." His terrorized eyes pierced his but he got to stay strong, for the sake of his brother. Matt grabbed his hand tightly, not willing to let him go. Few Peacekeepers started to come to their direction.

"Come on, Nick Lang. Up to the stage!"

"It's OK, Matt. Let me go." He tried to release Matt's death grip but it was too strong. His brother saying stammered denial words while panic and terror covered his eyes. The Peacekeepers was getting closer and they did not look happy. Nick search for familiar faces around him and found few of his friends seemed to be confused on what should they do.

"Hold him for me!" He yelled at them instantly. Gale and Saito quickly grabbed both of his side while finally Nick was able to tear his hand off his. A few hands of the Peacekeepers soon reached Nick shoved him roughly out of the line. Slowly, ignoring the eyes staring at him and his too fast heartbeat, he walked slowly to the stage.

They picked him instead of Matt was the only thing he could be grateful for at this point.

It seemed like a year before he reached the stairs and quickly was pulled up by Brunsman, positioning him beside Arielle. From where he stood, he could see Matt still trashing in his friends' grip while both of his parents hugged each other and cried silently.

Reality started to come to him. He was a tribute. He was on the Hunger Games.

He was going to _die_ there.

"Let's give your partner a warm greeting, come on!" the escort said, urging them to shake hands. Nick and Arielle walked toward each other and just stared those terrified eyes, both realised the same thing that they did not have the chance to come back home after this. Tears already glisten in her face; to be this close to her for the first time made him realise that she had a beautiful green eyes and understand why Matt chose the character for her in the first place. Nick, holding back his tears, raised his hand and said, "You were cast as Lily Potter for my brother's musical, right? Be brave like her, she's Gryffindor after all."

She let a small smile appeared for him and accept his hand.

"Ladies and gentleman, I give you District 8's this year tributes. Nick Lang and Arielle Goldman, may the odds be ever in your favor!"

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Review? :)


	5. Chapter 5 - Enemies And Allies

A/N** : **Thanks again for **MegGiry-TheAlbino **for the review, you make me keep writing this. You go girl! ;D

There, I made seven StarKid members as tributes, all in one chapter (don't know if I should feel proud or guilty about it). I probably won't update until after New Year, I will try to post something before the end of next week if I got many responds so please do! ;)

Happy early New Year for all of you and enjoy! :)

* * *

**District 4**

"Bonnie Wright."

From the girl line, a girl with bushy brown hair stepped out and walked confidently to the stage. When the camera put her face in the big screen, Joey thought she hid her fear quiet neat. Her confident smile was trembling a little but other than that she looked deadly.

After all, she was the brightest rookie in their year so he could not expect less from her.

Brant Cox, the escort, stepped in front of the second bowl of tesserae. Even before he could announce it, Joey knew exactly whose name was in his hand.

"Joey Richter."

For the first time, there were no surprise gasps when they heard the name. Everybody in the district, especially Joey, knew perfectly how the Capitol would not let a Victor's Blood get away from his last year having the tesserae. His friends from his surrounding gave him a pat on his back and he nodded, thanking them silently, before he got up to the stage.

When Brant instructed them to shake hands, he gave her a small nervous smile but she just shook his hand with hard expression in her face. _Well, that's a good start_, he sighed.

The Peacekeepers then led them to the train station and made him waited in one of the office there. Few moments later, his dad entered and immediately gave him a wet hug, literally.

"Please . . . please, just promise me you would . . ." the words lost in his sob on his son's shoulder. Joey fought hard not to cry himself, he needed those sponsors to get back home or his dad would . . .

"You know I will try my best, dad; just like mom," he murmured, afraid he would break down if he said it loudly. He pulled away from his embrace and looked deeply into his now red eyes. "But if I fail . . ."

"No! I won't . . ."

"Listen to me! If I fail, you must keep fighting for yourself. Fight for three of us like we fight for you in the arena!" he lost himself in desperation, seeing his dad broke down at this point. "Promise me, dad!"

"Joey . . ."

"Your word!"

"I . . . I'll try, son," he whispered in defeated voice after several seconds.

Joey bit his lips and gave him the last hug before the Peacekeepers forced him out to the train.

"I'm not going to lose, dad! You'll see!" Joey yelled to his dad between the hands that forced him to get into the train. He could not see his dad's response because soon after the door was closed and the journey to the Capitol begun.

His eyes were still on the door even after the train took off. His emotion was drained from the short conversation with his dad. God, he really wanted to cry that moment but the pressure on him was so high. What if other people could see him? He could not appear to be weak in front of the sponsors. He just . . . did not know what to do with all of that.

His legs slowly brought him into the compartment and soon luxurious items greeted him, along with Bonnie, old Mags, Brant Cox, and . . . _Finnick_.

"Odair?" He asked, clearly confused. "You're our mentor?"

Finnick smiled widely with a hint of sadness in his eyes, clearly noticed his relief in that tone. "Glad to see you too, kid."

"Well, since Joey decided to join us, I think it's better if we start to make plans now," Bonnie said with isn't-it-obvious attitude in her tone, not forgetting to give him a sharp glare.

Joey decided to hate her instantly from that moment and did not try to avoid her deadly look, as if dared her to say it again.

"Children, there's no need to make this hard enough for us," Mags interfere their silent fight while slowly walking to the nearest seat and sat there casually. "And don't take it too seriously or it will backfire on you, young lady," she advised Bonnie softly.

"Is it wrong if I just want to be ready for this?" she suddenly threw her hands in the air, could not believe how everybody acted on this situation. "This is not a game that you can take it lightly, in case you don't know about this!"

"You think we didn't know that, Wright?" Joey suddenly lost it and just yelled toward her.

Brant stepped in front of him, trying to block her from his sight. "Joey, just calm down . . ."

He ignored him completely and continued to scold at her viciously. "You think since you're the smartest, you can makes us the dumb troll in your book? Is that it?"

Her expression change to hurt, as if his word slapped her hard. Joey was too angry to normally feel guilty about it.

"Where's my room?" Joey asked tiredly, not caring who would give him the answer. Finnick silently pointed his finger at the door at the back and without saying another word he disappear behind it.

At the end of the alley, he found another door with fancy bed and other expensive stuff he could not care about in it. He went inside, locked the door, and slowly let himself slid into the carpet and cried. Cried until the pain in his chest disappeared and he succumb into unconsciousness.

* * *

**District 1**

"Hi everyone! It's glad to be back on my favorite district, especially in this special year," Corey Lubowich grinned widely, screening the faces of rookies who were already eyeing the tesserae bowl eagerly.

"Now, now. I know that it would be a big honor for you to compete in the Quarter Quell. However," he pulled a piece of paper from his dark blue jacket and hold it for everyone to see while putting a deeply concerned expression, "Since this year is so special for all of us, President Snow has made a slight change of regulations. Firstly, there will be two winners instead just one. That is if the remaining tributes left are from the same district."

This caused cheers to erupt from every corner of the square. Brian could not suppress his own grin hearing this one. Each individual was deadly enough among the other district, throw them into a team and their odds were higher than ever!

"Secondly, there will be no volunteering this year."

"_What!_" Brian was not the only one who felt angry with this. His fellow rookies who were planning to volunteer this year shouted flaming words toward the poor escort who could only held up his hands in defeat. They did not get it. For other kids it was only going to be another year to train for the next year, but it was Brian's last year before he joined the adult line and if they did not picked him now, he would not get the chance to . . .

To what? Had revenge? To prove that his father was wrong about him? Across the line he saw Devin throwing her sad smile for him, obviously could not hiding her relief for his own sake. She knew that he knew it was for his own good. Brian shifted his eyes back to the stage in defeated look.

"Well then, let's see who the lucky girl is this year!"

He walked to the first bowl, dug into the bottom of it and pulled one name to be announced.

"Devin Lytle!"

Her head snapped as her name echoed by the speaker. She quickly covered her shock with the smile that could make most boys fell to their knees and came forward. Few boys whistled as she stepped onto the stage almost seductively; Brian knew it was her trick to get the sponsors but it made him sick.

"Charming young lady," Corey complimented her immediately, causing her to giggle a little. "Okay, now for the lucky male going-to-be tribute."

Brian already let his hope crushed to the ground. There was no way he would get picked at this point. He did not even have to take as much tesserae as the others since his father was the trainer and made enough money for their small family. Instead looking at the escort like the other eager boys, he just looked at his feet while biting his lip hard until he tasted blood to suppress the urge to cry.

_I'm sorry, Crystal. I let you down again._

"Brian Holden!"

The atmosphere was so quiet after that, but then followed with loud uproar from many side, especially his surroundings.

"We can't send disabled tribute!"

"He'll die in the bloodbath!"

"This is ridiculous . . ."

Whilst the jealous rookies threw harsh words on him, his father who sat on the stage walked toward Corey and protested the result, and all the chaos around him continued; he still trying to process the name in his head.

He was the tribute this year's Quarter Quell.

Ignoring all the mockery toward him, Brian walked confidently and almost smiled when he saw Devin's disappointed look; not because the negative uproar on him but for the same reason she was been thankful for not allowing volunteers earlier.

"You'd better clear your head off from her before we go into the arena, Brian," she said in a low tone when they shook hands.

He did not have the chance to reply her because the Peacekeepers quickly led them somewhere near the train station, avoiding the worsening uproar at their back. They separated them into different room and waited for their family to come.

He did not felt surprise when his visitor has his mother alone. She quickly embraced him in tight hug and did not say anything for a moment.

"Please tell dad that I will prove him wrong, mom," he said quietly, did not break the embrace. He felt movement in his shoulder, telling him she had nodded.

"Just . . . just try your best, Brian," she choked, tightening her grasp on him as if did not want to let go so soon. "I'll try to get sponsors from our district and . . ."

"You know they hate me," he could not suppress the bitterness in his tone.

"Do your best, make them see that you're not disabled as they said," she pleaded, few tears dropped into his shoulder but he did not care.

Peacekeepers showed up and told them the time is up. Brian gave her a quick kiss on her cheek and let her hand go, letting them led him away and did not look back. Not even once.

The train quickly departed after that. When they went into the first compartment, their mentors and Corey were already waiting for them around the dining table.

"They sure hate you, kid," Gloss stated casually as he took the bread from the table and ate it.

"No kidding," was Brian's only respond.

"Well, do you think they're right? About your illness?" asked Cashmere from across his brother. Her tone was light but the coldness in her eyes almost made him step back.

"I'll prove them wrong in the arena," he said coldly, trying to sound confident for them, including himself.

"Brave and stubborn. I like this kid," Gloss said afterward.

"He's all yours. I'm going to take care of that girl, she reminded me of myself; beautiful and deadly," she praised her instantly, using much more gentle look toward her. He could feel she relaxed a bit beside him.

"Sit down with us! The reaping's rebroadcast is about to begin," Corey mentioned the remaining seat to them.

The playback made Brian sick. The camera captured all the uproar earlier and making it even worse, showing it from different angle from time to time as if it was fun to watch. He was thankful the only respond he get from them was Corey's disapproval look toward the television.

District 2's tributes was a big guy called Joe Walker and a not-so-tall-but-still-deadly girl named Lauren Lopez. Both of them used their smug smile and from their posture clearly could not be taken lightly.

"Make sure you make alliance with them, they look really promising as one," Gloss advised them.

They did not pay too much attention to District 3's tributes, seeing them weak as usual and moved forward to District 4.

Cashmere whistled slowly when the male tribute was reaped. "Now that's a Victor Blood."

Brian and Devin eyeing that person with anxiety in their eyes. Like Joe, Joey Richter also got a big posture. Unlike the other soon-to-be Career tributes, he did not wear the smug attitude instead plain, almost seemed to be humble smile.

"You definitely want him on your side," was Gloss' only respond, still chewing his bread.

The broadcast after that went fast. Brian only eyeing some of them who seemed not so weak as the rest of them; like Jim Povolo from Five (he was taller and bigger than Joe and Joey, if that was possible) and Jeff Blim with the female tribute Jaime Lyn Beatty from Seven (they were the only one aside the Career district who did not appear to be sad after being ripped).

They reached at the end of Eleven's reaping when Corey reached the remote and wanted to turn it off.

"Don't, I want to see Twelve," Brian quickly stopped him.

"Why? They're not important."

"Brian," Devin said quietly, warning him. He ignored them all and simply waited until District Twelve's reaping begun.

A girl, possibly 17 years old with medium dark brown hair named Meredith Stepien and a boy with a big posture and copper hair named Dylan Saunders were reaped. Brian tried to memorize them, remembering well how their previous tribute took Crystal away from him.

He would not let anyone touched those two because Brian was the only one who would kill them.

* * *

Please please pretty please review, let me know what'd you think of it and I'll promise to write faster than ever! :D


	6. Chapter 6 - Not Alone

A/N : Big thank you for _RavenclawStarshipRanger_, _Vuraangreg_, _MegGiry-TheAlbino_, and _RemusZaneRedvines_ for the lovely reviews! See, I told you I'll update faster if I got feedbacks :D

Another Reaping chapter, this time from District 11. I've seen many videos where Darren seems so close to Julia than the other girls so that's why I'm putting them together. In a ship. Which I don't know if it's going to sail or not, if you now what I'm talking about. Okay I'll just stop it there.

And from the reviews I got so far, I think there's a lot of Jopez shippers here! Don't worry, you'll see them soon enough if the feedbacks keep flowing in *evil laugh*

Happy New Year once again! ~ Vermouth19

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or Team Starkid

* * *

**District 11**

Julia could feel her heart almost cannot handle the stress since yesterday. The comfort Darren gave them sounded like an empty promise and she knew that he knew it too. She could not blame him for being the usual Darren she knew since they were little; always gentlemen to the core like his deceased father.

She stood among the other girls at the square, waiting for the escort as usual. Few of her friends' face were already glistened with tears. The others bowed their head to the ground and tried their best to suppress the constant raise of fear. Her hands felt as if she had been holding ice cubes for days; the nice white dress she wore was wrinkled at both sides from her deadly grip on them.

Finally, the escort and members of district council stepped into the stage. The new escort (District 11 always got new every year since they were not a favorite, obviously) was a young handsome man with red and black suit. He appeared to be less grumpy like his predecessors, he never stopped smile politely at every council member he greeted so far.

Julia shifted her attention to the boys' line on the right side of the square, looking for Darren. She easily found him with his bushy hair and at the same time his eyes met her. He just nodded and smiled a little to comfort her, apparently could not bring himself to smile wider than that. Both of them broke the eye contact half heartedly when the escort opened the Hunger Games.

"Happy Hunger Games. My name is AJ Holmes and as you can see I will be the Disctrict 11's escort this year," AJ greeted them with a big warm smile. Julia thought she would like this man if he was not the one who pulled the names in the next minute.

He then read the change of rules that the Capitol made. None of them got response from the crowd since a) no one would ever volunteer for the game, and b) working in team would not change the fact that they were not prepared like the Career districts. Luckily AJ was kind enough to skip the stupid comments unlike the previous ones and moved on the worst part.

She could not care even less if she ruined her stupid dress at that point. Julia could not stand watching him stirring the names, she soon copying the others by looking at her trembling foot instead.

It won't be me or Darren, this is our last year. One more and you're free. Julia repeated it over and over until AJ's word turning her world upside down since then.

"Julia Albain!"

* * *

Darren's head snapped wildly at the name being spoken. _It can't be_ . . .

"Julia Albain, please stepped forward," AJ repeated, looking for the girl himself.

"_No!_"

The terror on the voice he was been familiar with since their first meeting brought chill onto him. Frantically, he searched for her but the girls surrounded Julia to calm her. Without he even realised, he moved toward the source of panic before a hand pulled him back.

"What are you doing?" Harry hissed, still holding his arms.

"Julia, she can't . . ." Darren stammered his words in panic. No, not Julia . . .

"There's nothing you could do!"

_Nothing._ That word stabbed him harder than anything else. To think that he just gave her empty hope yesterday and now that hope was crushed in front of all of them. He could not even volunteer for her. He felt tears trickling down to his cheek as he hopelessly watched her frantic best friend being carried by forced to the stage since she could not bring herself forward.

For the first time in her life, she was in pure panic. Her feet felt like water when everything came to her sense; heart stopped beating; everything moved slowly like in dream world. That's right, it was only a dream. With her frantic eyes she searched for her best friend, her parents, anyone who could tell her that it was just a cruel dream.

She found none.

She thought she could handle it bravely, like yesterday when she and Darren stood for Mrs. Finnigan. But this time she could not; not without Darren on her side. Deep down in her heart where her sense still working, she hoped that Darren would get ripped along with her. But that was a cruel wish for him; he did not deserve to be in her place. Julia must accept that she was now on her own.

Few hands dragged her by force to the stage and she just let them. On the stairs, her watery eyes caught AJ holding up his hand to help her.

"Cheer up, Julia. The sponsors won't love you otherwise," he said quietly while helping her on each steps. He was right. She blinked twice, tried her best to stop the stream of tears and failed miserably. The only thing she was grateful for was that she got a caring escort for a start.

"Now, for the male tribute."

While AJ moved to the second bowl, for the first time since Julia got reaped, his eyes met her. She was wrecked from all the tears and fear still remained in her eyes. The one that confused him was her smile at him. The smile was honest and seemed grateful, and that was when it hit him.

She did not expect him to join her.

For the time, he prayed that AJ's hand would pick his name that day.

AJ had picked a piece of paper and moved toward the microphone to announce the name.

* * *

"Darren Criss!"

His heart skipped a beat. The shocked, terrified eyes of Julia confirmed his ears.

He felt no fear, no panic. Darren quickly ran to the stage and without thinking, embraced Julia as she sobbed hardly onto his shoulder. He did not care if everybody watched them, nor when the Peacekeepers led them away from the stage. He would never let her go again.

"I got you," Darren repeated his word again and this time she knew it was not a lie.

Everything went quickly after that. Since both of their family knew each other, they asked not to be separated for their farewell with them and thanks to AJ the Peacekeeper granted it. Darren and Julia embraced each of both families' members quickly before the time was up and they were brought to the train station. Along with AJ, they tried to eat District Eleven's view for the last time before the door was closed and the train started its journey to the Capitol.

"We should get inside," AJ suggested soon after they had left the station. "Clark has been waiting for both of you."

If the situation was different, Darren and Julia would be stunned by the room they had been led to. It was full of luxurious items they could never meet back in the district. The food smelled really good from the well polished table in the middle of the room. Apparently the reaping earlier had drained both of them, not even had the energy to care about it.

Clark Baxtresser stood near the dining table. He did not change much since his last year's victory. They did not see anybody else as a possible second mentor and nobody seemed to be surprised about this. Since the last rebellion, District Eleven had run out of victors until Clark by everyone's surprise won it last year. He won because the Capitol, for the first time, fell in love with District Eleven's tribute. His good looking face did take big part on it.

"Darren and Julia, right?"

Darren nodded for both of them.

"I think you should rest first before we can talk about our strategy. Your rooms are through that door," Clark said while pointing at the door on the end of compartment.

"Why not now?" Darren asked confusedly.

"Because if you don't attack these food the first time you both saw it like I did back then, then clearly you can't possibly digest what I'm about to say," he stated with serious face.

Darren and Julia did not argue and accepted the offer since they were indeed worn out. They walked through the alley and stopped in front of the door that led to the first bedroom.

"You can take it, I'll search for the other one," Darren offered softly but she shook her head.

"Stay with me?" He could see fear still remain in her eyes; her broken voice already clarified it. Darren nodded and they went into the room.

The bedroom was small but still beyond their standard back at the district. They just ignored the details and went straight to the bed without even bother to change their clothes. Being close friends since they were little made them trusted each other, that was why Julia did not protest or felt awkward when Darren lay closed to her as she faced the wall.

"Could you sing a song? Anything is fine," she asked quietly, did not turn around to face him because she was afraid breaking down once again if she did.

Julia could felt he shifted toward her and soon his voice filled the room.

_I've been alone_

_Surrounded by darkness_

_I've seen how heartless_

_The world can be_

_I've seen you crying_

_You felt like it's hopeless_

_I'll always do my best_

_To make you see_

_Baby, you're not alone_

_'Cause you're here with me_

_And nothing's ever gonna bring us down_

_'Cause nothing can keep me from lovin' you_

_And you know it's true_

_It don't matter what'll come to be_

_Our love is all we need to make it through_

She knew he would pick his favorite song. Darren often whispered it unconsciously on many occasion. However, until that day, Julia still could not find the girl he meant in that song because she never seen him close to any other girl than herself. Maybe before they went into the game, she could make him tell her instead. With that thought Julia finally fell asleep, letting the soft melody drifted her away.

* * *

Thanks for reading and please review! ;)


	7. Chapter 7 - Deadly Dynamic Duo

A/N : I couldn't thank you enough for the positive feedbacks, really, it keeps me motivated to continue this. You guys rock!

Well, about this chapter. You must already know who I'm talking about from the title itself. Enjoy!

Disclaimer : I do not own Hunger Games and StarKid, obviously.

* * *

**District 2**

That morning was Lauren Lopez's lucky day. To get chosen for Quartel Quel was not something that happened every year. Usually the only problem District 2 had was when the remaining tributes left were from their district so they had to kill the other to decide who the victor was, and that was a great loss for the district itself. This year's change of rules made them taste glory already even before the tributes were selected. Everybody knew their children were ready for this.

"Lauren Lopez!"

Lauren's grin could not get wider when the escort called her name.

She was about to walked out of the line when the girls around her started to grumble in jealous and few of them even dare to mock her. She overheard one of them saying 'That midget couldn't possibly lift a sword with her height' behind her back. Lauren quickly changed her route to the stage to that girl who still grumbling at her giggling friends.

"Say that to me again," Lauren dared her with venom in her voice. They had taken aback by her sudden appearance but the girl who mocked her soon recovered, she folded her arms and held her chin high to show her superiority because she _was_ indeed her superior.

"Listen carefully you midg- _AARGH!_"

The next thing they knew, Lauren was already on top of her and throwing heavy punches on her face. She heard screaming above her and the whistle was being blown frantically but she did not care. The person underneath her was struggling hard to throw her off to the side but Lauren locked her feet firmly at each side and still giving her no mercy from the vicious assault.

When the Peacekeepers reached them and pulled Lauren off her, the superior girl had passed out with blood from the torn temple, lip, and broken nose covered her face. Her friends tried to aid and wake her up in panic but she appeared to be deeply unconscious. Whispers came from every corner of District 2's square as the camera recorded the fight.

"You should see her face if I bring my knife today," Lauren laughed, grinned widely when the girl's friends gave her a horrifying look as the Peacekeepers dragged Lauren to the stage. If she was holding a knife, she would kill her right on the spot. They should know not to piss one of their best if not the best in her generation.

The escort gave her a forceful smile before he continued the Reaping. Lauren wanted to laugh as she realised he tried to make a wide space from her since then. Poor old man.

"Joe Walker!"

She could hear a loud _Yes!_ came from the boys' line. A tall man with a menacing, hungry look stepped out from the line and walked proudly to join her. Cheers came loudly from the girl's line, making his smile grew wider and Lauren to roll her eyes.

_Great, I'm stuck with an idiot._

The farewell did not take long time for none of them saying goodbye to their family. Lauren only gave her parents a quick hug and said she would win this for them before asking the Peacekeepers to escort her to the train even before the time was up. After they went into the train and soon departed from their district, Lauren and Walker went inside to meet their mentor.

Brutus and Enobaria had already waited for them around the dining table filled with various food they ever seen on one table. Brutus motioned them to join him and his fellow mentor for lunch and both of them quickly put everything onto their plate but still able to eat politely. District 2's economy was not as bad as the other district but still bellow the standard.

"Nice touch, what you did at the Reaping," Enobaria greeted Lauren with a smirk as she poured whisky onto her glass. "You'll have sponsors lining up even before they announced your training score." Lauren smiled contently as Walker glared hatefully toward her, angry because she was on the lead.

"Since you two were not in my or Enobaria's training group, why don't we start by listing your strength?" Brutus suggested casually before taking the turkey onto his plate.

"I'm basically good at everything," Lauren said casually as she chew the lamb stew, her tone was more like stating the fact rather than bragging about herself, "but my specialty is in knife."

"How about you, handsome?" said Enobaria seductively for the first time toward Walker, just sipping her whisky and did not touch the food in front of her. When she talked, Lauren could saw her gold teeth shinning dangerously and made her unconsciously shuddered as she remembered the story behind it.

"Same like her, but usually I use sword or spear. Although, I prefer to end my enemies' life with my own hands." There was a hint humor on his tone and when Lauren met his eyes, he grinned wider to tease her. She rolled her eyes and put her concentration back to her almost empty plate; her temperament was oddly calm enough after her stomach was full.

"Good. Now, the second question is, do you two know each other before the Reaping?" Brutus once again asked them, which they gave a unified answer. "No."

"That's alright, but start knowing your partner so you can work together well later in the arena. Remember, you're going to be a team instead fighting individually this year. Consider yourself stuck with your partner until you two are crowned as the victors."

"Oh, I don't mind to be stuck with you, _cupcake_," Walker said with a playful wink. He grinned when Enobaria stopped her from reaching the knife set.

"I don't care if I have to kill the other 22 tributes by myself 'cause I'm going to kill you at the bloodbath you _bastard_!" she yelled at him while still struggling from her mentor's dead grip to reach the knives. Walker watched her while eating an apple he just took.

Brutus slammed his hand hard onto the table to stop the fighting. "Cut it off you two! We may have strong rookies every year but a lot of them died because their arrogance; do you want to repeat the history?"

Lauren breathing hard from the emotion outburst and soon forced herself to calm down. Walker's expression turned to be more serious but kept eating his apple casually. Brutus seemed satisfied enough seeing their change of attitude and continued his talk.

"Before you get cockier, let me tell you that there is a Victor's Blood this year," he announced. Lauren and Walker was taken aback for a second before Walker laughed at it.

"Let me guess. _Twelve?_" he asked mockingly but Brutus' unbroken expression wiped his smile instantly.

"Four."

_Shit,_ Lauren cursed quietly. Taking care one person would be easy enough for two Career tributes like her and Walker. Competing against Victor's Blood _and_ a Career tribute from a Career district like them would be a _bit_ troublesome.

"Here's what you need to do; you are going to make alliance with both of them . . ."

"Why not killed them at the bloodbath? They're going to be dangerous if we let them stay with us for too long," Lauren cut his word in confuse.

"That won't be wise for you," Enobaria was the one who answered her. "You see, when you attacked them in the bloodbath, there would be a lot of distraction from the other tributes. If they escaped from there, isn't it going to be a lot harder for you to chase them back?"

Lauren did not answer her. "Thought so. But, if you make them stay with you for a while and trusted you," she smiled menacingly as she raised the glass to her lips, "Think of the chances you get to slit their throat everytime they sleeps beside you."

Walker and Lauren grinned together upon the idea.

"Tomorrow at the training session, keep an eye on District 1 and other possible threat for you to be added as additional into the alliance. There's uproar when the male tribute from One was reaped. Don't know what makes them do that but watch him carefully for possible weakness." Lauren raised her eyebrow but otherwise did not say anything. Uproar? That's new . . .

"And the last but not least, you must allow whatever your stylist is going to do with your body after we arrive on the Capital."

This instantly caused a loud protest from both of them.

"What do you mean by _that_? What are they going to do with me? I refuse to be . . ."

"If they make me like a Capitol's clown then I'm gonna . . ."

Brutus sighed heavily as he stole Enobaria's whisky bottle in front of her and drank it straight from it. Hopefully it would be enough to calm the nerve until their tribute went into the games.

* * *

**The Capitol**

"Pat Brady, now that you've been once again elected as the Head Gamemaker for five years in a row, are we going to see different approach of the game for this year's Quartel Quell?" Caesar delivered his first question to the Gamemaker. His theme for this interview was electric magenta; his purple hair, lips, and hair matched his all time favorite midnight blue suit. Pat, on the other hand, kept her profile low as usual by wearing a soft dark blue tacky trouser with a matching coat and black turtle.

"Of course, it's the Quarter Quell! When there will be two instead just one victor, it's only fair if we raise the standard, isn't it?" she said calmly like a professional while the host nodded in agreement. "What I can promise you all is that this year's Quartel Quell won't be disappointing."

"Well, we know you won't let us down, Pat. After all, you weren't reelected for five times for nothing, don't you all agree?" He got a loud cheer from the audience.

"Now, after the Reaping is over, what do you think about our tributes?"

As Caesar spoke, the screen flashed the footage of tribute when they got reaped along with their name on it.

District 1 _Brian Holden_ | _Devin Lytle_

District 2 _Joe Walker_ | _Lauren Lopez_

District 3 _Joe Moses_ | _Lily Marks_

District 4 _Joey Richter_ | _Bonnie Gruesen_

District 5 _Jim Povolo_ | _Britney Coleman_

District 6 _Nick Strauss_ | _Denise Donovan_

District 7 _Jeff Blim_ | _Jaime Lyn Beatty_

District 8 _Nick Lang_ | _Arielle Goldman_

District 9 _Brian Rosenthal_ | _Sango Tajima_

District 10 _Chris Allen_ | _Elona Finlay_

District 11 _Darren Criss_ | _Julia Albain_

District 12 _Dylan Saunders_ | _Meredith Stepien_

"It's hard to say just from the Reaping itself, moreover having no volunteers this year; but I think it's going to be an interesting mix. Oh, and we have a Victor's Blood, that's going to be fun to watch."

"It is!" Caesar agreed enthusiastically along with the roar of excitement from the audience. "He's going to set the bar higher for other tributes, but I think he got formidable opponents from District Two. The look in their face clearly said we shouldn't underestimate them, especially that Lauren Lopez!"

"Indeed. And there's uproar for the first time in District One, we all sure want to know what the cause was. See, I told you this year won't be disappointing," Pat teased him a bit, causing Caesar to chuckle at that. "We believe you, Pat Brady."

"Thank you for clearing things up, Pat. Join us tomorrow at the Parade as we are going to see our tributes for the Fourth Quartel Quell live from the Capitol!"

* * *

Lesson of the day : Never, I mean _never_, underestimate the power of Lauren Lopez cause she can kick butt like Taz herself ;D

Now that you already know who represent the districts, please let me know which one do you root to win. Place your bets people!

Thanks for reading and please kindly review!


	8. Chapter 8 - Smile And Represent

A/N : I'm glad that you like the last chapter! And all of your bets are already being considered carefully for the future chapters ;D

_MegGiry-TheAlbino_ : Thanks and of course I included Joe Moses, it's a must!

_RavenclawStarshipRanger_ : Thanks! Interesting choice, and I'll think about it *evil grin*

_Vuraangreg_ : I made them not knowing each other so the tension between them can get higher as frenemies ;) And love your choice of District 10 for the victors!

I tried not to use OC name beside the original HG characters but since I'm running out of StarKid members, I took their character's instead. And other things that I forgot to mention on early chapters is that I took Starkid's characters as alter ego for the Starkid that played it. Like Taz for Lauren (a meaner version of her, at least), Toby for Darren, and later a bit of Snape-Krayonder for Joe Moses, I hope that explain why they're not as bubbly as they should be.

Enough for the talk. Please enjoy and don't forget to review! ;)

Disclamer : I do not own StarKid or Hunger Games, obviously

* * *

Everything went fast when Nick and Arielle arrived at the Capitol. They soon were dragged, passing through the mass of enthusiastic crowd wearing hideous outfit who tried to look at their tributes, to the preparation room. She was being separated from Nick when they passed an alley with two exits; she went to the left one and arrived on a bright, clean room with chambers that were separated by green curtain. Two women with one man, all wearing thin blue uniform made from plastic that covering what seemed to be another eccentric style of outfit, quickly welcomed her to one of the chambers as the Peacekeepers left them alone for the preparation.

"As much as I love that dress, off with it, dear," the woman with lavender hair and lips told her softly as she closed the curtain while her friends were busy preparing all kinds of bottles on the rack and put them at the side of the metal table that had holes on the surface in the middle of the chamber.

She eyed them nervously as she took a glance on the table. The woman seemed to read her mind before added, "Don't worry, we're just going to prepare you before we brought you to Richard."

Arielle, remembering Tyler's advice to do whatever they told her to, nodded slowly and begun to take off her Reaping clothes made by her mother half heartedly. After the woman put her clothes away, she helped her lay on the table and they started to bathe her. They appeared to be very talkative and friendly as they never stopped talking even though she never gave a long respond instead a short answers like _Yes_, _No_, or _Uh uh_. Suddenly the atmosphere was similar to her school, a place where she and her friends could smile in this horrible situation.

"What's the matter, sweetheart? Did I hurt you?" the other woman with bright pink lips and white hair asked her anxiously, stopped combing her hair when she saw her crying through the mirror's reflection.

"No, I'm fine . . ." she said weakly, trying to avoid the question. The second woman captured the message and stirring the conversation to the other way to make her comfortable.

"I'm Mega, by the way. This is Krayonder and Lavender," she motioned her friends who were still polishing her nails.

"Girl, when I saw you walking through that door, my heart just burst! We usually have to make over, literally make over from zero, tributes who come from poor districts like yours. No offense," Krayonder added quickly, did not notice she already took it that way. "But when you came with that dress . . ."

"The dress is pure genius! Who made it for you, dear?" Lavender asked enthusiastically.

Arielle did not expect this one. "Umm . . . My mother. She's really good at sewing since our district is . . ."

"Textile! That makes sense," Mega cut her. "But aside from your clothes, I think you will look stunning when Richard's done with you later."

The three of them continue to rambling about the stylist and other things that she could not follow, which she was thankful since she could be alone with her thoughts. After they finished giving last touch on her hair, they escort them to a private room and told her to wait for Richard there.

The room was bigger than the chamber but brighter and cleaner. There was a similar metal table with the one back in the chamber but without the holes for bathing. A big cupboard full of all kinds of bottles and products stood beside the table. Another cupboard but this one with doors made with metal so she could not see what was inside it was on the opposite side of the table. No windows, so she decided to sit on the table and spent her time looking at the content of the cupboard while waiting for her stylist to come.

"Arielle, isn't it?" She almost jumped at the sudden voice that belonged to a man wearing loose dark brown shirt and black trousers that just came and now observed her in amusement. He was the first citizen of Capitol that did not wear thick make up, just a stroke of silver powder on his lips. She nodded while the man quickly shook her hand and gave her a warm smile. "You're very brave at the Reaping."

Her voice caught in her throat and she once again only nodded to the question. Richard took one step from her as he once again observed her overall appearance before shifting his attention back to her. "I'm Richard Campbell and I'll be your district's stylist this year."

"You're new?" Arielle asked before she could not hold it, she blamed her curiosity for that.

"Yes, you're right. This is my first year."

"It must be sucks, to be put on a poor district," she said sarcastically, her chest boiled when she remembered Krayonder's comment about her district earlier. To her surprise, Richard laughed at that.

"No, no. On the contrary, I asked to be placed on District 8 instead. Your district's major is textile and I couldn't think of how dreadful the costumes were made since the Second Quartel Quell, don't you think it was such an ironic?" he wrinkled his eyes as if the memories were too painful to remember.

She thought it was ironic too. Her district should be wearing more decent clothes for the parade since all the luxurious clothes that the Capitol people wore were came from District 8, and yet everytime the Parade was held the previous tributes were wearing dreadful costumes as if it was made of patchwork.

"I saw a beautiful young girl in front of me and it would be a shame if a brave girl like you should be wearing silly clothes," he said warmly. She blushed at the compliment as he walked slowly toward the metal cupboard across the room. "My design may not be as glamor as One but I hope you can make a good impression with it."

Richard opened the cupboard and Arielle's jaw dropped after finally seeing what was inside it.

"I think red suits you, don't you agree?"

For the first time since the Reaping, Arielle smiled.

* * *

Joey waited nervously at the stable where the chariots awaited with his stylist, Ali Gordon. He was the third tribute to arrive there since District Two's tributes were already there when he arrived. Boy, the look that they gave him earlier made him feel he was already in the arena. The glares were amplified by their sinister gladiator costume, complete with leather breastplate, pads, and Roman's feather helmet. Yep, they definitely looked ready to kill someone.

At least they got to wear a _real_ costume. Ali insisted him to wear only a thin green fabric that was made to look like a seaweed and coiled it around half of his left arm and his hip to cover his private organ, that's it! He did not even get shoes to cover his feet. Joey hoped the ground could swallow him before he died of the embarrassment out there.

A moment later, more tributes joined him and his shame was growing bigger. He even felt jealous at District Eleven's costume that made from webbing hays. Finally Finnick showed up and he could not hold his laughter when he saw Joey. "You remind me of myself back then," he stifled his laughter poorly. "Good job, Ali!"

"Not funny," Joey grumbled as his face grew redder.

Finnick cleared his throat and dropped his playful act before talking with lower, more serious tone. "Hold your chin high; make them think not to underestimate you." Joey sighed and lifted up his head with a hint of cold glare in the eyes. God, it was difficult being the scary one.

That's when he saw Bonnie, Mags and her stylist coming to their direction. If his jaw dropped, he did not notice. She was wearing a soft green ocean gown with extra layers on the end. The same seaweed fabric coiled the gown as a rail plant and ends on her right arm's middle finger. Her brown hair was bound into a bun with a big silver shell put sideways as semi hat.

She walked slowly toward them and Joey noticed her red faced like him. Mags lead them to their place and greeted them with warm smile. "Sorry for the lateness, the dress is a bit tricky to put on but I think it's worth it."

"Ali is genius, it was her design," the male stylist complimented his colleague and made her grinned proudly at her work. Finnick agreed almost immediately and the four of them soon sunk into enthusiastic chat. Bonnie took the chance and grabbed still dumbfounded Joey to the side of their chariots.

"Tell me, Joey, what's the damage?" Bonnie whispered quickly, her face grew redder when she asked the question.

At first he did not understand what she meant by that, but then it hit him. He knew she had self conscious problem back in the district since she was always training and study and never cared for her appearance but her words that quickly downgraded herself was breaking his heart.

"Bonnie, don't be scared but . . . you look hot." he said honestly.

" Oh no! There goes all my credibility as an intellec . . ." she stopped when the words hit her. "Really?"

"Yes! Well, yours couldn't be worse than mine," he grumbled at the last one. Her face was as red as tomato when she saw him for the first time wearing his costume.

"Thanks. You look . . . not bad at all yourself," she blushed, noticing he was almost naked there. Joey coughed and pleaded her also with a red face, "Stop it or I'll die of embarrassment."

She laughed at that and Joey let go a small relieved smile, part of it because Bonnie seemed to relax a bit after that. The incident at the train suddenly flashed in his memory and he was ashamed of himself from his burst of emotion earlier.

"I'm sorry, about what I said on the train . . ."

"Me too," Bonnie cut him quickly, also felt guilty. "I panicked and didn't think rationally on what I said. It's not your fault."

Before Joey could reply her, Finnick showed up among them. "You should get ready, the parade's almost started."

Joey nodded and like the other tributes around them, he hopped into the chariot and helped his partner climbed on it. Their heart drummed nervously as the gate opened and a loud applause boomed in their ears. District One's chariot went out first and the applause grew wilder.

"Remember, smile charmingly. Make them love you," Finnick reminded them while the second chariot made it to the door. Both of them nodded silently and when it was their turn to go out, they took a deep breath and prepared themselves to face the Capitol for the first time.

"Show time," Joey said, putting his best smile on the face and, like Bonnie, stood proudly to represent District 4.

* * *

I can't resist the temptation to put AVPSY's dialogs, I imagine Joey and Meredith to be very cute when they played it *sigh*

Please review!


	9. Chapter 9 - Victorian's Spell

A/N : Sorry for the long time update! I'm getting back to college soon and many things kept me away from my laptop. Thanks for the reviews and new followers! I'm afraid I won't be updating soon, not until Thursday, but if I'm getting a lot of feedbacks from this chapter then who knows :D

Hope you like this chapter, it's the hardest one to write so far :)

Disclaimer : I don not own Hunger Games or StarKid, obviously!

* * *

**The Parade**

Right after the Peacekeepers gave the signal that the Parade was about to begin, Richard wished Nick and Arielle good luck and quickly went to the VIP chamber for the stylists only. When he pushed the door and went inside, most of them were already arrived and standing in groups while holding glass of drink and chatting eagerly to one and another.

The room was really big and extravagant. There were food and drink in every corner if not the Avox already came to the guest to offer them one. Few guests shot a glance on him when he came but soon ignored him because they did not recognize who he was yet since he never been in this particular room before when he was still work as a prep team for District 4.

The wall captured his attention. It was made of screens, covering all the wall as if they _were _the wall, and showed the sight of the City Circle from different angles as everyone there seemed to get ready to see the tributes.

"_Richard!_"

He looked around the room and smiled when he saw his previous head stylist, Ali Gordon, waved to him to join her along with her 'friends'. Richard gave her a kiss on the cheek and greeted her warmly. He grew close to her since when he joined her prep team and when she acknowledge his passion in designing clothes like her, Ali recommended him to the Capitol and thus making him as the new head stylist for District 8. He could not thank her enough for that.

"So, this is your former pup?" A tall man with silver hair and black suit asked Ali as he observe him with a cold, judging eyes. Even a new guy like Richard could tell that that man was none other than Eric Kahn Gale himself, the famous stylist of District 2.

"Don't be rude like that, Eric. Besides, we should welcome him even if he wouldn't stay long here," the shorter stylist beside Eric told him while he gave Richard a smile that did not reach his eyes.

Richard knew this would come. If the tributes were fighting in the arena then this VIP room was the arena for stylist everytime the Hunger Games started. It was a vicious battle of confidence and pride. When the Parade started, the screen would show each design to be judged, or mocked eventually, by other stylists. The winner could slowly reach the top, meaning he or she would get better districts like One or Two. The losers would be kicked from this elite circle before they could even say _I quit_.

Caesar Flickerman saved him from the other comments as his voice blaring into the room, indicating the Parade would start soon. While Caesar and Claudius Templesmith banter each other as usual and the other stylists shifted their attention to the screen, Ali nudged him softly on the arm and whispered, "Don't worry about them. This is your night." Richard smiled gratefully, grabbed a whisky from an Avox and emptied it quickly before watching the Parade started. He definitely needed a lot of alcohol tonight.

The camera shoot the first chariot and the speaker boomed by the cheers from the audience. The male tribute was wearing white tuxedo and tie made from black diamond while the female tribute transparent dress was covered by white diamonds as if she was wearing diamonds as the dress itself. There were also diamonds on the girl's hair as addition garnish so when the spotlight was on them, they were sparkling like stars.

_Show off_, Richard rolled his eyes but the enthusiastic murmured that covered the room and Caesar's praise seemed to disagree with him.

"Now that, is a true masterpiece!" Caesar shouted eagerly to overcome the Capitol's screaming.

"Thank you, Caesar," the short stylist lifted his glass as if saluting the commentator with a smug smile. If he was the stylist for District 1, then he must be Nico Ager.

"You called that masterpiece? More like a recycled design from, what, five years ago?" Eric gave his first harsh criticism to start the battle. Ali jumped in as she added, "Eric's right, that dress seems familiar to me."

Nico smiled nervously; Richard could see the gears inside his head worked hard to defend himself. "Well, Victoria was using ruby that time, but I perfected it by using diamonds that . . ."

Bad choice of words. "See, I told you it was a recycled design," Eric talked loudly so the other stylists outside their group could also hear it. Nico drank his wine with his face flushed. Even though the Capitol loved it, he lost big time in that room.

Richard grabbed another drink to calm his nerve. This was a brutal game. Even if District One's costume was recycled and a little bit too much for his taste, it was not bad at all and yet the other stylist slaughtered Nico to the death.

District 2 was up next, showing their tributes dressed as gladiator minus the weapons. With their deadly glare toward the camera, the crowd cheered them as they gave them _Gladiators_ as a nickname.

"Could you give them something else beside mass murderer image?" Ali commented them in tired voice.

"Sorry, hon. Should work out with the theme 'Masonry'," Eric shrugged as he look at the screen, very satisfied with the effect he created. No one dared to criticize him so that round was won by Eric.

Richard felt really bad for District 3's stylist as the camera shot their tributes. It was awful. The majority material of the costumes was cable; colorful cables covered them and made them looked like a statue of cables. In a second, the room was exploded by laughter.

"That is a dreadful design!"

"Why didn't the stylist told them to hug motherboard instead? That way people will get the idea of 'Technology' much faster than the cables do!"

While Nico and Eric continued their harsh criticism, neither he nor Ali made a single comment. From the corner of his eyes, Richard saw a man in purple suit went out of the room with shoulders slumped. He did not want to add another misery in his disappointed appearance.

The wildest scream from the crowd so far emerged when District 4's chariot showed up. The female tribute looked really lovely with the ocean like dress as if she was the queen of the sea, while the male tribute . . .

"That's cheating," Nico murmured hatefully toward Ali. That tribute clearly stole all the attention from the previous tributes to his extreme almost-nude appearance, showing his muscles without a problem. Richard could see women showering him with flowers and he was instantly became Capitol's favorite.

"This view reminded me of the famous Finnick Odair," Eric stated it almost in accusing tone. Ali smiled widely as she followed her tributes stole the spotlight.

"Exactly."

"I think it looks really beautiful. That seaweed was a nice touch to the gown," Richard complementing the praise from Caesar. He ignored Nico's hateful glare toward him as she thanked him silently with small smile.

District 5's costume was controversial among the stylist. The outfit was black rubber suit with no decoration whatsoever and earned mocks from fellow stylists as tasteless design, but the stylist managed to make it produced electricity as the district's signature so they could see flashes of mini lightning surrounding the tributes in a beautiful way. The crowd loved it, though.

District 6 tributes dressed in blue mechanic suit with their faces covered by oil. Nico, Eric, Ali, and Richard himself agreed that it was horrible and desperate. District 7, however, made the dress and tuxedo from hundreds of bark sewn together and presented a unique costume. It was okay for the crowd but Ali seemed to like it a lot.

Richard emptied his second glass of whisky as District 8 was up next. The chariot went out of the gate to the city and the crowd gasped in unison.

He had always favored Victorian Era's fashion since the first day he decided to be a stylist and for his first year it seemed reasonable when he made his design with its influence. With red and black as major colors, his tribute looked like a royal family of the era. For Nick, the male tribute, he made him dark red frock coat with black embroidery that formed a nice V-neck, black linen trousers, black leather shoes and gloves. The coat succeeded in boasting his appearance to be bolder. The addition top hat gave optical illusion that added few inches to his height.

For Arielle, he still felt bad for using corset (because that was not comfortable at all) but now he thought it was worth it. The dress suited perfectly in her slim body. The not-too-big crinolines shaped the dress like a dome and also made the waist looked smaller. A bit puffy sleeves but slim as they neared wrists was added as a garnish to her feminine look. He combined red and black and the embroidery of flowers to cover the surface. Finally, he braided her hair and pinned it high and added Victorian hat that placed sideways as a last touch.

Richard held his breath as his fellow stylists observed his design in silent.

"I love it!" Ali yelled, clasping her hand on Richard's and shook him eagerly. "That was genius! Oh, I miss those Victorian look," she sighed as she followed Nick and Arielle toward the City Circle. Richard's hands were getting warmer when he heard positive feedbacks was given from the other stylist in that room and the crowd seemed to love them.

"It was old fashioned," Nico pouted, clearly hoping his design was as dreadful as District 3's.

"At least it was original," Eric glared at Nico and made him shut his mouth. "It could be worse for your first year. Well done, Richard." He almost cried when _the_ senior stylist praised him, and he glad he could gave his tributes their first impression in a good way.

The parades continued fast after that. District 9's tributes was wearing simple yellow outfit and were holding a stack of grains. District 10 dressed as butchers, complete with red liquid similar to blood smeared their body and made everybody shivered and sick at the same time. District 11's suit and dress were made from webbing hays, almost as unique as Seven. District 12's stylist seemed to run out of idea as the tributes were dressed as mining workers.

As President Snow gave the welcome speech as usual to the tributes, the battle among the stylist was over. Eric and Nico went to other direction to chat with the other and left Richard alone with Ali in front of the screen.

"Congratulation, Richard. I'm so proud of you," Ali said to him with a warm smile. Richard could not suppress his smile this time as he said truthfully, "Thank you, ma'am. It was all because of you."

* * *

_This is stupid_, Moses thought bitterly as the chariot brought him and his fellow tribute, Lily Marks, toward the City Circle. He preferred to just go straight to the arena and gambled with his luck than being a clown of cables that their stupid stylist made them to wear. Their face flushed when they went out of the gate and the Capitol instantly laughed at them.

Forget about the costume, this parade itself was absurd! The Capitol praised them with luxurious treatment and made them waving gratefully to their people in silly costumes as if they were lucky to be there and should thank them. Not to mention they took us away from our family to fight each other to the death for their local entertainment.

He looked around at the crowd who were still mocking him, as if they dressed better than him! Moses rolled his eyes and tried to block the voice from his head. Lily looked as if she wanted to be swallowed by the ground, her face was red and pale; he hoped she did not get sick until the parade was over.

"District 8 is up and oh, what a lovely Victorian Era's costume they wore!"

Caesar's voice busted his ears and Moses glanced toward one of the screen they were passing and his heart stopped.

He did not know much about Victorian fashion other than the costumes were really nice and much better than his, but that was not what made his mind went blank. The female tribute looked stunning in that dress and when she smiled shyly toward the crowd, he forgot how to breathe. Her eyes were the one who captured him completely; it was as green as a meadow on summer.

Moses followed her until the camera shifted to Nine's chariot, and that was when it hit him. _You can't fall in love with a random girl, moreover we are in the Hunger Games!_ the voice inside his head screamed.

But she was not a random girl.

She was the most beautiful girl he ever saw.

His chariot finally arrived on the center of the Capitol. He ignored Caesar's further comments, the applause, and President Snow standing on the podium above him. Moses used the time to clear his head while waiting the other chariots to arrive.

The corner of his eyes captured something on his right and when he turned his head, the girl's green eyes met him. Moses forgot all the talking inside his head, tune off his ears, and did the first thing that went through his mind; he smiled.

The girl seemed to be taken aback by him. Moses did not blame her, he also cursed his stupidity for smiling to a future enemy but it was too late. He was rather shocked when she replied him with the same shy smile before turning her attention toward the President.

_What have I done?_

* * *

And that's when Snape met Lily... Please review! :D


	10. Chapter 10 - Hard As A Diamond

A/N : I'm sooo glad you like the last chapter, it really paid off for me! Oh and sorry for the late update, I know promised to post it yesterday but many things happen and short story : sorry! This is the last chapter about the Parade, the next one will be on the Training Center yay! Please pretty please give a review so I can update a lot faster *doublewink*

Disclaimer : I do not own Hunger Games or StarKid!

* * *

No matter how silly he thought this parade was, Brian still could not suppress the crazy beat of his heart when the chariot moved forward to the gate. He glanced at Devin and caught a glance of worry in her eyes but was quickly swept away by the excitement.

Devin was indeed known for her beauty in District 1, but that night she looked like a goddess. The diamond dress brought her look into a whole new level, making her literally glowing when light fell on her. Even Brian had to admit that she looked stunning, which was rarely happened.

She caught him staring intensely at her and smirked teasingly. "Something's wrong, Holden?"

Brian quickly shifted his gaze from her with a hard expression on his face. "Nothing."

Devin sighed tiredly before forcing herself to produce the sweetest smile she could make when their chariot arrived on the City Circle road and the spotlight was blinding them instantly. "Just try to enjoy the moment while we're not in the game yet."

She never heard his respond because in the next second a booming cheers erupted and soon they could hear people screaming their district's name. Many of them threw a rose onto the chariot; Devin caught one of them and blew a kiss toward the crowd. She swore a young man fainted when she did that.

Between Devin's random kisses for the Capitol, she glanced at her partner and almost shook her head in disbelief seeing Brian was just waving his hand with a straight face.

"I know they love me more than you do," she screamed to overcome the loud cheers at him, "but we need those sponsors badly and you can't let me do all the work!"

For the first time since . . . since ever, Brian smirked at her. "Oh, really?"

Brian seemed to take it as a challenge because he presumed to catch a flower that crossed his face at the right time and gave a charming smile plus a wink to the girl who threw it. The girl along few of the others that were on the same direction screamed really loud and blew him kisses like a mad person. He laughed at their silly reaction.

That laughed; it had been awhile since she heard him laughed like that. The serious, mournful look he usually had was replaced with bright smile and a dose of healthy happiness. Without his furrowed brow, he looked much younger and, to be honest, handsome too. She could not suppress her smile when she looked at the old Brian before the 99th Hunger Games.

"See? They love . . . _What?_" Brian asked confusedly when he turned around to find her smiling warmly at him. She only shook her head and continued to spread her virtual kisses; Devin did not want to say anything wrong that could wipe the smile from him. He deserved to be happy, especially when he could die in the Hunger Games.

Soon after that, the spotlight moved onto District 2's chariot and they had to try harder to keep everybody's attention on them. Brian and Devin knew they had lost when the crowd started to yelled the word 'Gladiator' and the rain of flowers stopped.

Devin shrugged, admitted their lost. "Well, now all we need to do is just getting a good score on the training."

Brian, however, was observing the screen that showing District 2's tribute Walker and Lauren. Walker appeared to be bigger than the image from the reaping and, if possible, he looked crazier and meaner with the gladiator costume. The same thing goes to Lauren, except that the height was still the same. Although she had this piercing look that made him promised to be extra cautious if she was going to be his ally.

"I never like District 2. They seem very . . . barbaric," Devin commented when she was following his gaze.

He forced to shift his eyes from that female tribute to the City Circle uneasily. "Yeah."

After all the chariots arrived at the City Circle, President Snow delivered his welcome speech as usual; talking about the purpose of the Hunger Games, Quarter Quell, and other nonsense like that. Brian looked at his partner and she also appeared to be bored by this. Who doesn't?

"I hope he's done with the stupid speech soon before I ripped off this ridiculous tie; diamond or not," Brian was grumbling at her in a low voice. Devin woke up from her day dreaming and frowned.

"I feel sorry for you. Wearing a diamond must be excruciating," she said sarcastically while pointing to her dress.

"It's different, you enjoy it!"

"I enjoy the way it makes me look _pretty_, not comfortable."

"Whatever, it's fake anyway."

"No, it's not. Nico told me it's real."

"_Is it?_ Well, this is ironic. I never had a single good meal back in the district and now I'm wearing the one most expensive diamond."

"Welcome to the Hunger Games, Holden."

Brian never talked to Devin before they got reaped. He was being distant with almost everybody, especially women, for the past year. It turned out that she was easy to talk with, and he was really grateful for having her as a partner rather than one of the princesses in District 1.

"Thank you," Brian suddenly said it to her. She blinked twice, apparently was taken aback by him. "For what?"

He shrugged. "For supporting me at the Reaping. For the night before it. For talking nicely to me. Take your pick."

Brian could almost see she blushed but it was quickly replaced by her teasing smile. "Did I really did all of that?"

Before he could say anything, the chariot moved and both of them quickly grabbed the side of it to prevent from falling back. They laughed together, barely registered that President Snow just finished the speech and now they were escorted to the Training Center. They could see Gloss, Cashmere, Corey and Nico already waited for them along with the other mentors and stylists in the hall.

"Good job, all of you! We already talked to few people who are interested to become your sponsor," Cashmere greeted them with good news as Brian helped Devin stepped out of the chariot. They both grinned widely at their mentors.

"Don't get too excited first, kids," Gloss added with a serious tone, "You still need to get a high score for the training. This is Hunger Games, not fashion week."

"And great work with the costume, Nico. Everybody loves it, especially Miss Lytle's," Corey praised the stylist but he only accepted it with a sour smile. "Thank you."

Their escort then clapped his hands excitedly and said, "Well, you all must be tired after what you've been through today. I'll take you to our apartment; you'll love it!" Everybody agreed and quickly went toward the elevator. When Brian was turning back to follow Devin, he bumped into a woman who at the same time went into the opposite direction of him.

"Hey, watch where you . . ."

When Brian raised his head, his blood turned cold immediately. In front of him stood a girl with curly brown hair, the same girl that he saw in the Reaping's rebroadcast as one of District 12's tribute, along with her mentor and partner. She stepped back when she recognized him as one of the Career tribute and quickly apologized.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," she stuttered nervously. Brian did not say anything instead unconsciously clenched his fist. The male tribute apparently saw it because he moved in front of her to shield her from Brian.

"She already said sorry. It was an accident," he said with a clear tone for Brian to knock it off.

"Dylan, Meredith, what's wrong?" A voice called from behind those three but none of them said anything. Brian's eyes turned to him and now he only saw red. _How dare they_ . . .

A soft hand held his strongly before he could raise it and Devin's pleading voice rang through his ear. "Not now."

Brian did not break his deadly glare on Dylan. He did not realise that almost everybody was watching them and the Peacekeepers slowly made their way toward their spot. Luckily in Devin's third attempt to drag him out, he finally loosen up his fist and let Devin took him away with her. She gave Dylan and Meredith a fierce glare before literally pushing Brian to where their team awaited.

"What was that all about?" Cashmere immediately demanded an answer from Brian. Devin glanced at him to see his jaw clenched tensely so she spoke for him. "Just tributes from poor district that don't have manners."

Gloss did not seem satisfy with her answer but instead he just sighed and lead them to the elevator. Everybody stay silent during the short trip since they occupied the first floor. Even the marvelous view of their apartment that greeted them after they arrived could no break the tension in the air.

"Take a rest, both of you. You'll have breakfast at eight and we would like to have a word before your training session at ten," Gloss finally broke the silence. Corey showed them the way to their room and Brian left them before he finished talking.

For a moment her heart broke when she saw the mournful Brian came back, but soon her anger pushed it aside. Devin was done with Brian's childish attitude. She thanked Corey and as quick as her dress allowed her, she ran after him. She saw Brian was standing silently in front of his room with a blank expression but before he could do anything, Devin slammed him hard against the wall and pinned him.

"What . . ." Devin pressed her elbow hard to his back while the other hand locked both of Brian's arms behind his back, effectively cutting his word.

"You think this is all about _her_?" Devin hissed at his ear. Brian growled and tried to fight back but she threw a heavy punch on his side and took his breath away. She could feel his body slump a bit as he coughed but she did not lower or withdraw her hands.

"My life is also in stake!" She did not lower her voice now. She could not care even less if their mentors and escort could hear them. "We are a team and if you blow it up then you'll drag me down as well! You act like that again tomorrow, Brian Holden, and I will kill you myself in the bloodbath."

She turned him roughly and brought her knee toward his stomach. Without another word, Devin walked away as her partner leaned against the wall and coughing hard, leaving him with his own thought about what she said just now.

* * *

Ouch . . .

Please review and thanks for reading! ;)


	11. Chapter 11 - Sai vs Knife

A/N : Thank you for the positive feedbacks so far! Here's another one from District 1 and a bit from 2 and 4. The other district will appear in the next chapter so don't worry! Oh and I hope it gives you a clue about whether there will be Breredith or not in the future chapters ;) Please don't forget to review, it'll help me to write faster!

Disclaimer : I do not own Starkid or Hunger Games!

* * *

A loud buzzing voice from somewhere in the room woke Brian abruptly when he just managed to shut down his mind. He groaned and when he could not find the source of the annoying voice, he yelled angrily to shut it off. "Okay, okay! I'm up!"

"Good. You got 10 minutes to drag yourself here or you won't get any breakfast," Gloss' voice echoing on the room and then everything went silent.

Brian massaged his red eyes tiredly. His whole body felt sore, particularly his side and abdomen. Devin's voice still ringing painfully in his ears and that was why he could not sleep last night.

Last night was a mess. He was a mess. That night, when he talked to Devin at the Reaping, was the first time he completely forgot about Crystal; and even though a pang of guilt came after that, Brian honestly felt grateful. He thought he could finally move on thanks to Devin.

The incident with District 12's tributes proved him wrong. Those frightened eyes of Meredith reminded him of Crystal's when she said goodbye to him at the train station. All of their memories flushed him instantly and how he could forget her if she was the reason for Brian to be there in the first place? And when her fellow tribute stood up for her, glaring at Brian with the protective act, his chest almost blew up with the sudden rush of jealousy.

How lucky of her, he thought of the Twelve girl, to have someone protecting her like that when Brian could only watched Crystal walked alone to the Death's door from a screen. Seeing Meredith and Dylan like that made him projecting him and Crystal on their place and it only added more wound on his already broken heart; that it would _never_ happen to them.

He should hate them, despised them just for coming from the district that took her from him alone; but the image of her inside Meredith sent a drop of hesitancy inside him. _C_ould he still kill her if she kept reminding him of Crystal?

Brian shook to clear his head. No wonder Devin was mad at him last night. She was right; he should not let the idea of revenge getting him off the track. They were a team; he could not screw this up for their own sake.

He glanced at the clock beside the bed and cursed when he only got five minutes left before he lost the chance to have breakfast. God knew he needed it since he did not eat much yesterday. Brian took a quick shower, dressed himself in a training suit, and dashed off to the dining room.

Everybody except Corey was already there. Gloss and Cashmere were having a quiet conversation while Devin, also in her training suit, ate her breakfast in silence. When their eyes met, Devin looked away immediately. Guilt came back to him but he still had the courage to sit next to her, ignoring her deadly glare all the time while he started to fill his plate.

"Now that everybody's here, let's start talking about our today's agenda," Gloss said after he was done talking to his sister. "Starting with alliance. You know what to do; make sure Two is in your side first. Then keep an eye on Four for possible alliance too, but also look for their skills and weakness. Other than those two, you're free to make your own call with Walker and Lauren."

Devin nodded quietly. Brian still did not feel comfortable about making alliance with Two but he kept it to himself and also nodded.

"As usual, try to intimidate the others by walking straight to the weaponry station. Make sure the Gamemakers saw how good you are with sai and archery. Oh and Brian," he shifted toward him, "I want you to visit the running station and mark the time on exactly how long does your lungs last."

Brian was about to protest on how silly and embarrassingly this was for him but Cashmere pointed her index finger to warn him. "Don't argue with us, kid. This is for your own good to know the limit of your own body. Your sai would be pointless if you can't even _breathe, _just so you know."

"But don't let the others know about this, especially Two. Got it?" Gloss pressed on him until he nodded grimly.

The conversation lasted until they finished their breakfast. At nine o'clock, Brian and Devin decided to go to the gymnasium earlier than they supposed to. Usually Career tributes did not showed up until the specified time, but they did not have anything to do and Brian did not want to risk falling asleep again. Besides, maybe they could scare the other tributes there.

They remained silent to each other until they got into the elevator and Brian could not stand it anymore.

"I'm sorry," he finally said, hoping his face did not blush too much. When Devin ignored him, he continued. "I didn't think that time and . . ."

"I don't need your apologize," she cut him sharply. "I need you to pull yourself together on the game or I will have to make my threat happen for real."

She just repeated nonverbally that she would kill him, but rather than got angry Brian felt ashamed instead. He knew Devin only said that to wake him up from his own mind, so he accepted it gratefully.

Devin took a glance on him and sighed when she saw the guilt on his face. Judging from the dark circle around it, she assumed he had cleared his head last night. When the elevator opened, Devin smacked his head jokingly and walked out first with smile on both of their faces.

They were indeed the first one to arrive and the gym's door was not opened yet so they have no choice but to wait outside. However, they managed to use the spare time to stretch out a bit.

"Gloss could just woke us up at nine and we would still have enough time to make it here without being late," Brian grumbled as he dropped himself onto the ground and started doing push up. Devin copying Brian, doing standard warm up just like they used to do in the training, and she laughed a bit at him.

"Hey, at least we got to warm up before starting to intimidate people. I can't wait to land my hand on a good bow and arrows," she sighed longingly, clearly missed using her archery skill. Brian shook his head in disbelieve and switched to sit up in silent.

Just when they finished, tributes from Three, Four, and Eleven arrived. Brian and Devin exchanged views as Joey and Bonnie eyeing them with unreadable look.

"Come on," Brian nudged her and came to them.

Joey was apparently taller than they had expected while Bonnie was in the same height as Devin and Brian. Brian did not notice any smugness in their expression like Two but instead a wary one.

_This is going to be hard_, Brian thought.

"Joey and Bonnie, am I right?" Brian started the conversation respectful. He knew they did not trust them and he needed to change that.

Joey nodded. "Brian, Devin," he greeted them with the same tone.

"Relax, we are on the same side," Devin added with a warm smile after seeing what Brian saw earlier. "We are Careers, after all."

The atmosphere was getting awkward after that. Brian thought this was useless so he picked a different approach on them.

"I know it's too early to form an alliance, but like Devin said, we are Career tributes. So what do you guys say; are you on the same side with us?"

Brian said the last one with a cold smile on his lips; he dropped off his warm attitude and just went straight to the point. He would rather die than begged them for alliance; District One tributes were never a weak one. If they turned down his offer, both parties knew that they would face each other in the bloodbath.

"Of course. Do not equate us with them," Bonnie said suddenly. "We will make an alliance with you and Two, if they want to."

Brian could almost saw Joey's eyes widened in surprise but in the next second it was gone. There was something fishy with them, and he did not like it. He surely hoped they did not stab them in the back or they would pay big time for that.

"I hope we didn't miss the party."

All of them turned around and saw Walker and Lauren with their usual menacing look. Walker eyeing them one by one and stopped at Joey. "Victor's Blood, huh?"

"Got a problem with that?" Joey folded his arm and looked at Walker straight in the eyes. They were both in the same height so the view was like two giant challenging each other to make the first move. Walker grinned widely and looked at him with this creepy hungry face on him.

"On the contrary, you two will be a great ally to us," Lauren said happily but the cheerful tone did not reach her cold eyes. "And you're from One, right?" she turned to Brian and Devin as if she just remembered them.

"Yes," Devin said with an ice cold tone.

Lauren clicked her tongue. "Watch out with the tone, sweetheart. You don't want anything bad happen to that pretty face of yours, do you?"

Before Devin could say anything, the gym's door was being opened by the trainers and told the tributes to step inside. Lauren and Walker walked inside first, throwing nasty look toward the others to move aside from their path. Brian put his hand on Devin's shoulder to calm her down and alongside Joey and Bonnie they followed the others inside.

Atala gave a word about the importance of survival stations but Brian ignored her. His eyes darted to the stations and quickly found the weaponry one. He grinned widely when he could saw a pair of sai sword was hanging among the swords and knives. Devin's anger also lessened a bit after he pointed the archery station.

After they were being dismissed, Brian, Devin, Walker, and Lauren walked straight to the weaponry. They were half way through there when Devin realised Joey and Bonnie did not follow them.

"Are you coming with us?" she questioned them confusedly.

"Yeah, but maybe later. You guys go ahead first," Joey said before he and Bonnie went to the knots station.

"Career tributes that prefer survival station rather than weaponry. Is this a joke? Is he even had Victor's quality in him?" Walker hissed suspiciously after they walked away.

Brian and Devin hated to admit it but they agreed with him. They probably did not want them to know what their skills were; if they really had one.

The thought was quickly swept away after Brian grabbed the sai swords and spinning it casually in his hands. Devin went to the archery and looked as happy as he was when she shot the first arrow. Lauren joined him since she said was looking for a good set of knives while Walker snatched a spear from male tribute of Five and dominated the station for himself.

"Brian Holden, right?" Lauren stepped beside him with a set of metal knives, facing a couple of training dummies few meters from where they stood. "I remember you from the Reaping. Your part was very interesting to watch," she said casually while inspecting one of the knives.

Brian gritted his jaw but did not stop playing with his sai. "And why is that?"

"I may be wrong but it seems your district hates you." She said the last part on the same time when the knife pierced one of the dummies' head.

He stopped at that one and looking at her with a deadly glare while she ignored him and took out another knife.

"Don't get me wrong, my district also hated me because I'm better than the other rookies," she threw the second knife and landed it on the other head. "But when I watched yours, there is a word that kept bothering me until now. They did not say it out loud. Hell, I even had to turn the volume to the max to be able to hear it last night. Do you know what the word was?"

The third knife pierced the second dummy on the neck this time.

"_Disabled_."

Brian's blood turned cold as he watched the knife landed to the target. Lauren smiled menacingly as she now was facing him.

"Can you enlighten me about that? Should I reconsider you and your doll over there as allies?" Lauren's smile was gone in a second and was replaced by the same piercing look he saw in the Parade.

Nobody talked for a moment, but then Brian raised one of his sai on his right hand as if he was weighing it. "I don't know what are you talking about, Lauren, but,"

Suddenly he grabbed the handle and threw it hard onto the dummy. It landed on the first dummy Lauren stabbed earlier; the sai punctured right beside her knife.

"I can say that we are really valuable as both ally _and_ competitor."

With that, Brian walked toward his sai to take it back with him and walked away from that girl. She could not let her see his heart sank; knowing that Lauren Lopez, District 2 tribute, knew his secret.

He could only hope that that was as far as she knew about his weakness.

* * *

Review, pretty please? *wink*

Oh and have you guys seen the new promo of Glee? Joey and Tessa! *uncontrollably excited


	12. Chapter 12 - Rogues Are We

A/N : Sorry for the long awaited update, I'm back to my college life and it keeps me very busy :( I tried to update at least once a week, although it could be more or even less than that, again sorry for that! In the mean time, I hope you like this update. Please review, it never fails to brightened my mood ;) Thanks and cheers!

Disclaimer : I do not own Hunger Games or Starkid!

* * *

Darren and Julia were the last tributes to leave when Atala finished briefing them about the stations. The Careers were going straight to the weapon station while the rest of them scattered to the survival stations.

"Well, what should we do first?" Julia asked Darren while she was observing their options.

"How about the edible plants? After that maybe we can try the snare-setting; it's being occupied at the moment," he motioned Dylan and Meredith who were there first and now was listening to their mentor's instruction on setting a rabbit trap.

She agreed and they headed to the empty station. The female mentor, Cho, greeted them nicely; she seemed glad that there were tributes that were going there for this unpopular skill. Cho then showed them the edible and non edible plants, and also gave them bonus tip not to eat anything with bright color because The Gamemaker always like to paint the poisonous food with attractive colors. When she tested them with few berries and other food that had appeared so far in the game, Julia could almost identify all of them correctly and only missed two berries that she had not seen in their district.

"How do you know almost all of these fruits? I'm not even familiar with at least half of them!" Darren moaned, frustrated already when he got the wrong answer for the sixth times.

"I'm working as harvester; of course I can recognize then all," Julia said with apologetic look. "Don't worry, you can show me the making snare thing later since I know you always have to deals with those rabbit pest."

"You have no idea," he rolled his eyes but he stopped pouting after that. Julia shook her head and she and Cho tried to help him for awhile until he was down with just two mistakes.

"I think y'all already good at this. Just remember to always certain 100% it was safe before you put it in your mouth, okay?" Cho smiled proudly at them for a moment. "Just so you know, I'm rooting for your district. Don't let me down," she winked at them before dismissed the mentoring session. They thanked her quietly and went to the snare station.

"She talked as if this was some kind of child's game," Julia said suddenly in a bitter voice.

Darren stopped her instantly and confronted her with sad, concern in his eyes. "Don't do this, Jule. It's not healthy."

"But the way she . . ."

"I know what you mean; but it doesn't mean we _have_ to listen to them," he pressed on. "Do you think I enjoy the Parade? I felt like an animal yesterday, with those silly costumes we have to wear; but I wore them because that's the way we should play the game."

Julia's expression suddenly changed at his last words. "Are you saying we should play along, be a part in this sick game?"

"I'm talking about trying to get the sponsors!" Darren's voice raised a bit but he quickly changed to desperate, silent plead. "Jule, don't waste your energy on them; it's not worth it. Seeing you . . . not like yourself since the Reaping is killing me. Just . . . just be yourself again for me, please? I'm not going to let this game change us."

Julia could see his sadness clearly in those eyes and a small part of her felt guilty for causing that; but she could not accept his reasons, no matter how hard she tried. She felt angry for a long time and being reaped did not help her a bit, if not worsen it. However, she tried her best to suppress it for him. He was right; the game could not and would not change both of them.

"Come on, I need you to teach me about those snares," she forced a tiny smile and hit him jokingly before they went onto the next station.

That was when a loud voice suddenly erupted from the other side of the gym.

* * *

"How dare you take my sword!" the male District 2 tribute walked toward Jeff with a threatening look. Jeff ignored him and quietly observing the weapon on his palm; it was indeed a good weapon of choice. He still preferred to use an axe, though, compared to the silver blade. It was easier to chop off something with the axe.

"Give that back, you piece of trash!" the boy once again yelled at him as he raised his fist to warn him. How funny he is!

"Relax, I'm just checking it out. Also, it's not like you're that good to play with it," he said casually, still had not let go or even looking at Walker.

All tributes who heard him gasped in horror. Walker's face already red with anger. With a quick step he finally reached Jeff and without a word threw a punch on him. A loud clang echoed in the gym as Jeff dropped the sword and fell onto the ground after taking the fist on his face. He wiped the blood from his torn lips and suddenly laughed hard.

Walker screamed frustrated and quickly took the sword but before he could use it on him, few Peacekeepers held him back and snatched the weapon from him. Everybody was now watching Jeff continued to laugh and Walker who still fought the guards.

"I'll _kill_ you! I'll kill you myself at the bloodbath!" Walker shouted furiously at his direction. Jeff stood up and, to everyone's surprise, he smiled widely while his eyes were filled with sinister glare toward Walker.

"Not if I kill you first," and with that he laughed again, as if he just said a funny joke. The guards took Walker who was shocked by the words just like everybody else in the room to the opposite direction to prevent him from having a fight with his fellow tribute. Everything was silent for a moment as the other tributes were looking at him like he was an awesome guy who was brave enough to fight one of the Careers; but the admiration soon gone when they could see craziness in those eyes.

"You're so hot when you're laughing like that, Jeff."

Jaime's sigh from his back made him rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

She ignored him and moved to face him with a childish sad smile on her face. "You shouldn't do that; you know our mentor said not to attract . . ."

"He's stupid," he cut her quickly with an unpleasant look toward her. However, he soon grinned widely as an idea popped in his mind. "He wants us to be low? Fine. I'm not going to do anything in the scoring, and I suggest you do it too."

"But why?"

"We don't need sponsors. And don't you think we will give a good show if they don't know what's coming to them?"

Jaime, slowly got the idea, also grinned happily. "Oh, that's a great idea!"

Jeff stared toward the direction where the guards took Walker with them with a hungry look. "Yes, I bet it would be fun for all of us."

* * *

Note : Jeff's alter ego here is Sweet Tooth while Jaime's is Candy

Thanks for reading and please please review!


	13. Chapter 13 - The Way I Do

A/N : Another quick update! I'm planning on 2 more chapters before I made you all hate me. Reviews, faves, or follows are greatly appreciated ;) Cheers!

Disclaimer : Still don't own Hunger Games nor StarKid

* * *

Three days of training went quickly and yet Meredith still could not find a skill to show for the scoring. She and Dylan had visited most of the survival station and she failed pathetically. Dylan were lucky enough that he found out he was good at lifting heavy weights at the weight lifting station so he decided to use it on that day's scoring. Meredith stucked without a single option.

She looked nervously at Julia from District 11 that went inside the gym just now. She could be the next one heading to the Gamemaker anytime soon with absolutely nothing in her mind.

"Don't think too much, I'm sure you'll do just fine," Dylan's voice woke her up from her own panic, mistakenly saw her anxiousness as a sign of nervous.

"It's easy to say it when you already have plans," she sighed heavily as her forehead furrowed.

"You don't?" He exclaimed shocked. "I thought you and Lupin were already discussing it

this morning!"

"No! He suggested me to work on snares but you know I can't!" Meredith burrowed her head in her palms, fought hard not to let her tears dropped.

"I'm not strong enough to fight like you. I can't make snares or even have any kinds of those survival skill. I'm going to die."

"Hey, don't say that!" Dylan turned her quickly with a deep concern in his eyes, tried to look at her. She refused to met his eyes but Dylan could notice a drop of tears dropped into her cheek and soon followed with another.

"See?" Meredith smiled sadly, did not try to hide her face anymore from him. "I even fail not to cry."

Dylan gave a a moment to try to collect herself but she appeared to have lost her hope already. He sighed and said, "Maybe you're not strong. You might not good enough in those stations in these past days."

Another tears dripped from her red eyes. "I knew it."

He quickly continued his words. "No, no, you've got it wrong! You may not have all of those but you already got something better in return."

Meredith gave him a puzzled look.

"Remember when we're on the same class at sixth grade?"

She nodded slowly, could not suppress a tiny smile as the memory came back to her. How could she forget it, or the fact that Dylan was her classmate back then.

"At gym class, Mrs. Hooch made us compete in a racing track on the field and you won it as if there was no competition at all! I always thought Draco would won it since he ran very fast when Neville took his pants off in front of the class."

Meredith choked a laughter and Dylan smiled when the picture of their friends came back to them.

"You remember?" She suddenly asked him.

"Seeing Draco wearing a diaper is not something you can easily forget," he laughed hard.

She smiled but shook her head. "I mean the race."

He slowly stopped laughing and then looking straight to her eyes. "Do you know what I think that time? I think that girl was lucky to have such a talent because as long as she could run, nobody could ever catch her."

She blinked at his words. Dylan, the bravest and funniest guy that everybody in her class admired, was just complimenting her. Meredith smiled a little as her face blushed.

"You think so?" She squeaked, afraid that she was mishearing it.

"I do because you don't know you the way I do," he said with a soft smile.

"Meredith Stepien," the voice from the speaker called her name and made both of them almost jumped off the bench. They did not notice that Darren had been called inside and now it was her turn to present herself in front of the Gamemakers.

"You go to the obstacles track over there and run as fast as you can. Don't think, just run," Dylan told her as she started to panic. Her legs shook a bit when she stood up and with a great effort she walked slowly to the door.

"Thanks, Dylan," she turned over and said it to him before she passed the door. Brian nodded and raised his thumbs before the door was closed she was on her own.

Meredith nodded to herself and continued to walk toward the balcony where the Gamemakers were apparently having lunch. She introduced herself with a hoarse voice, tried to get their attention onto her. Pat, the Head Gamemaker were few among them who turned over from the banquet and silently was watching her.

She walked to the obstacles track on the corner of the room. Only few tributes had been there and practicing yesterday and she did not have the will to try it. She owed Dylan for this brilliant idea.

Meredith counted to three and she dashed on the track. Thanks to her slim body, she could climb the rope and crawl under the bars easily. Dylan was right. She felt as if she was flying instead of running and she finally laughed with relief. She almost felt as if she was back in the field with her friends.

She stop counting the time when she reached the finish line and smiled widely when she finished 100 meters in less than one minute and she did not even break a sweat. Meredith glanced at the balcony and caught Pat gave a little nod before she went back to the banquet.

The weight inside her felt as if it was being lifted away. Meredith did have something to be proud of, after all. With a lighter heart and feet, she walked toward the exit door and went back to their apartment while hoping Dylan would do better than her.

* * *

Lupin welcomed her as she knocked the door of the apartment. He looked at her with a worried expression on his face.

"How was it? What did you present?" He shot the questions that had been eating him since this morning. They were desperate to find something for her to present since last night so she could understand his worry over her.

"I ran," Meredith stated shortly, closing the door behind them and went inside.

"Pardon?"

"I ran," she repeated with a wide grin on her face. "Dylan gave me the idea and I ran through the obstacles track. I think it was a better idea than doing snares, which I can't to be honest. Sorry," she added the last one with guilt in her voice. She knew Lupin had tried hard to help her and in the end she did not use it at all.

"No, no, it's fine! I'm really glad you figure out something," Lupin declined the apology, clearly as relieved as she felt just now. "Why don't you tell me the details while having lunch and waited for Dylan to come?"

She agreed almost immediately, did not realise she was starving until now. Meredith finished her story when they heard a knock.

"I'll get it," Meredith ran toward the door and smiled widely when she saw Dylan at the door.

"How . . ." She did not let him finish and just gave him a tight hug. He was dumbstruck for a moment before he patted her back awkwardly and made her realise what she just did.

"Sorry! I . . . Ummm, I . . . Thanks, for your advice," she stuttered nervously, her face blushed as red as tomato.

"Did it work?" Dylan asked enthusiastically as they walked back to the dining room. She was glad he did not say anything that could worsen her embarrassment.

"Yeah . . . I think it worked."

"Great! That's wonderful," he exclaimed with total honest that made her blushed once again.

"Dylan! How's the scoring?" Their mentor asked as they sat around the dining table while the Avox served them. Dylan dismissed them with concern look. He started to fill his plate and told them his scoring process.

* * *

Dylan found Meredith already sat with crossed leg in the main room, waiting nervously for the broadcast.

"Hey," Dylan greeted her as he sat beside her.

"Hey," she replied shortly with a nervous smile. Dylan was about to calm her down but Lupin had joined them after that and soon Caesar appeared in the screen.

The commentator gave a sort opening and he started to read the scores. Brian Holden and Devin Lytle from One got 10 and 9. Meredith felt uneasy when Brian's face flashed along with the number ten on the screen. She still could not forget the incident at the Parade and prayed he did not target them on the bloodbath.

Joe Walker got the same score as Brian while Lauren Lopez got 11. Both tributes' stare were no better than Brian, if not worse. They were surprised when Caesar announced District 3's score. Joe Moses got 8 while Lily Marks only got 4. Dylan and herself could not remember that guy was standing out in any station while they were practicing.

Joey Richter and Bonnie Gruesen from Four got 11 and 9; they were Careers after all. Jim Povolo and Britney Coleman from Five got 7 and 6, Nicholas Strauss and Denise Donovan from Six got 5 and 2, while both Jeff Blim and Jaime Lyn Beatty from Seven got . . . _zero?_

"Impossible! He almost had a fight with one of the Career and he did that intentionally," Dylan said in disbelief.

"If that so, then it must be one of their tactics," Lupin commented slowly. They did not like this. A tribute with zero training score could be more dangerous than the Careers.

Both Nick Lang and Arielle Goldman from Eight got 6. Brian Rosenthal and Sango Tajima from Nine got 6 and 5. Number 8 flashed brightly when Chris Allen and Elona Finlay from Ten appeared. Darren Criss and Julia Albain from Eleven both got 7; she knew they were great in few of the survival stations.

Meredith's heart drummed when she saw herself appeared on the screen. Number 7 flashed then flashed brightly and she almost jumped in excitement.

"Very good, Meredith!" Lupin praised her while Dylan once again raised his thumbs as he looked at himself on the screen nervously. Number 8 appeared and he slumped back onto the couch, felt very relieved.

"That's a great score, Dylan," she complimented him with a wide smile. Dylan grinned widely as return the favor.

"Yours was not bad at all. I told you it will work."

Meredith never thought one could be grateful if you were in the Hunger Games; but that night she was for two reason. The first one was having a good person like Dylan as her partner; and two, that she was able to prove to everyone but especially to herself that she was not worthless.


	14. Chapter 14 - Time Turner

A/N : I am terribly sorry for the very long update. I manage to write this one in just two days but hadn't had the time to re-edit it so please be gentle with me. I don't know when I will post another chapter but I will not abandon this story so don't worry! Thanks for those who continue to read and post lovely, supportive reviews, you guys rocks!

Disclaimer : Still don't own Starkid or Hunger Games...

* * *

**The Interview**

Brian's heart drummed as Caesar's voice booming from the stage, giving the opening for this year's interview as usual. From where everybody was waiting for their turn, which was at the side of the stage, the loud cheers could be heard clearly and shook some of their nerve including Brian's.

He glanced behind his shoulder, watching his fellow tributes. Walker and Lauren were chatting, or complaining to be precise, about their costumes behind him. Joey could not stay still and kept tapping his foot nervously. Strauss was pulling his collar to loosen it a bit but ended up ruining the tie. Julia was unconsciously biting her nails.

He was really glad that this year they do the interview in pairs according to their districts and not one by one as usual. Devin had known his dilemma and said she would take care of the talk, but still . . .

"Relax, just smile and leave it to me," Devin nudged him, knowing what was inside his mind.

Before he could say anything, a man came and told them to get ready. Brian's eyes grew wider but it was too late to go back now (not that he could anyway).

"You know them as most dashing tributes from the Parade. Please welcome Devin Lytle and Brian Holden from District 1!"

Devin quickly slipped her arm elegantly on Brian's and led her less eager partner to the stage. "I'm serious, don't forget to smile," she hissed before they went into the sea of enthusiastic Capitol people.

Caesar welcomed them warmly while enthusiastic applause erupted from the audience. Brian's palm was as cold as ice when they sat down. He had never been the center of attention like this before, having cameras and thousands of positive attention instead the negative ones he usually gets was really nerve wrecking. He tried to hide this by forcing a smile like he did on the Parade and also slipping his wet hands one inside his trousers' pocket and the other one resting behind Devin as if he was embracing her. She, unlike him, looked really calm and he was sure she actually enjoyed it.

"Devin, when I see you in the Parade, I remembered asking my friend Claudius if District 1 sent a goddess this year! You were absolutely marvelous in that diamond dress," Caesar opened the first interview with Devin by complementing her highly. The crowd agreed to him by once again giving a loud applause for the tribute.

Devin gave her most charming smile and with half joking half sighing she said, "I'm glad that you all like it because it wasn't easy at all to put it on."

Caesar laughed along with the Capitol people. "Well, beauty always comes with a great sacrifice."

"That's what I said to Brian," Devin added, smirking at her partner. He smiled stiffly, clearly looked uncomfortable with this situation.

"Our stylist was merciful to us tonight; as you can see he decreased the amount of diamond on our costumes. What do you think?" Without any hesitation, she stood up and twirled a bit to show off the dress.

The enthusiastic roar answered her almost immediately, making her grinned widely. The dress was indeed gorgeous in her opinion. It was made from white satin and using black diamond just for the little ornaments so it was not as heavy and as painful as the one she wore for the Parade. Brian's tuxedo was also made from the same fabric and it suited him perfectly.

"There's no denying. You still look like a goddess," Caesar summarized the responds from the crowd. "And congratulation for getting scores of 9 and 10 yesterday. Do you think the odds are with you this year, Brian?"

Brian was taken aback a bit when Caesar suddenly asked him but managed to give a save answer. "Of course. Devin and I are well prepared and shouldn't be underestimated."

"We won't in a million years. Now tell us, do you two have someone special back in the districts? Or are you two a couple? You and Brian got a lovely charisma in there."

Few audiences gave a teasing whistle while Brian and Devin's face blushed over the frontal question.

"We are not dating. And no, I haven't have one," Devin faked her innocent smile to stir the attention from Brian because she knew where this would lead to.

"You hear that, Capitol? The chance is still wide open!" Caesar's voice was covered by a loud applause from the audience, especially the group of young men.

"And how about you, Brian? Handsome young man like you must've had at least _someone_!"

Every eye in the audience tribune along with Devin's suddenly came back on him, demanding the answer. Devin seemed to be noticing the sudden change of expression on his face because she quickly took over the conversation.

"Ah, now I remember! There's this sweet gentleman who . . ."

A soft pinch on her arm stopped her. She turned to Brian with a worry look and shook her head very slow so he was the only one who could saw it. If they did not have thousands of eyes on them she would tell him to stop, to keep the precious memories for himself instead. But he ignored her and took the question to the truth.

"I had a girlfriend," he answered shortly.

"That's really unfortunate. What happened?" Caesar immediately when he noticed Brian was using past tense.

"She passed away last year."

The audience gave a sad _Aww_ and applauded politely to show some sympathy. The ladies in the front rows snorted on their handkerchief and wipe the tears away. Brian turned his gaze away from them; the sight made him sick.

"I'm so sorry for your lost," Caesar offered his condolence. "What was this poor girl's name?"

Brian did not bother to fake a smile this time. He looked straight into the camera and said the name loud and clear.

"Crystal Dravite."

The audience was murmuring to one and another as he mentioned her name. Caesar eyes clearly said that he recognized the name and gave Brian an understanding and sorry look but did not say anything, much to Brian's relief. Of course they remembered her; she was sitting in his place and had three minutes of chat with Caesar in front them last year.

The buzz suddenly screamed, telling them their time was up. Caesar closed their session and after a warm and still awkward applause, Brian and Devin were escorted down to the other side of the stage.

"I'm so sorry about that," Devin said on the way to meet their mentors and prep team. Brian smiled sadly and shook his head.

"It's fine. She did the same thing for me, mentioning my name when Caesar asked the same question. The least I can do is returning the favor." He sighed and loosened up his tie. "I also meant it as my last slap to my father. I hope he watched it."

Devin looked at him with a weird look and in the next moment they laughed hard.

* * *

_"Crystal Dravite."_

Meredith's head snapped up when she heard the name.

"What's wrong?" Dylan's voice sounded far away as the memories played back on her head.

* * *

"_Five tributes left! David from Twelve just eliminated another tribute and . . . Wait, did I saw Crystal behind that tree?" Caesar's voice echoed from the small TV. Meredith clutched onto her mother while her father gripped the table in front of him tightly as the little screen showed their son and brother was being overshadowed by one of the Career._

"_Yes, and not in a good shape I must say. Uh oh, I guess she had found her next target," Claudius said this time._

"_David behind you!" Meredith shouted frantically when the female tribute prepared her knife._

_As if David could hear her, he turned around and at the perfect moment he swung his back pack and blocked the knife from his stomach. The Career, Crystal, quickly recovered from the shock of getting caught, pulled out the knife and clawed his face to distract him._

_David screamed and covered his bloody face with his hands and let his defense down. Crystal lunged onto him and made a stabbing move toward him._

_Meredith buried her head on her hands when David screamed. She sobbed uncontrollably, fearing of the worst. _

"_He dodged it! Come one, son!" His father's voice brought her head up and saw David was wrestling with the girl with a bloody arm. He seemed to block the knife by sacrificing his arm. _

_David struggled beneath her when she pinned him but quickly the position shifted as he tackled her and now both of them were in the ground, trying to get hold of the weapon. _

_And that was when Meredith saw what Claudius meant earlier. Crystal's side was covered with blood and her move was a little clumsy. There was a fire on her eyes but she could also saw fear in it. She was badly injured and was in a desperate situation, just like his brother._

_The adrenaline seemed to drain out of her when David finally managed to snatch the knife from her and now he was pinning her to the ground. She struggled for awhile but the movement soon stopped. David breath hard, he looked straight into her drowsy eyes, questioning her._

_Tears fell down from her eyes when she spoke to him in low voice. Meredith jumped toward the TV and increased the volume._

"_Please . . . Make it quick."_

_She felt as if the words hit her hard like a club. The girl did not give a threat or fight back. She was pleading for him to end her misery._

_David was shocked as all of them when he heard it. He breathed hard, still processing the horrifying request inside his mind._

"_Please . . ."_

_Meredith could not remember what Caesar said that time. Her attention was on David's trembling hand that slowly gripped the knife tightly and raised it toward her throat. He bit back his own tears as Crystal's eyes followed the knife._

"_Thank you," she choked, smiling a little even though she had not stopped crying._

_His hand shook harder. He gritted his teeth in frustration. His tears finally fell onto her head, mixed with the blood._

"_I'm sorry," he said in with a broken sound and mercifully swung the knife onto her._

_The canon announced Crystal Dravite's death. Her parents hugged each other, relieved that once again David was saved and got closer to go home. As much as she wanted to celebrate it, she cried silently as her eyes had not left the screen. David wiped his eyes and, with Meredith on the other side of the lens, eyeing the fallen tribute. She knew that he thought the same thing when they looked at Crystal; that she did not deserve this. Career or not._

* * *

"My brother . . ." Meredith choked her words out when at the same time Brian and Devin went down from the stage.

"What is it?" Dylan asked confusedly.

A tear slipped from her guard as she revealed the tragic memory and the horrifying discovery.

"My brother killed Crystal Dravite . . . and now Brian wants to get revenge on us."

* * *

Review never fails to make me write faster so . . . please review? :)


	15. Chapter 15 - Choices

A/N : One more chapter until the game!

Disclaimer : I do not own Starkid or Hunger Games

* * *

"There you are! I've been looking for you forever."

Darren's voice jolted her up from her deep thoughts. Julia turned around and found her friend was already at the door that lead to where she was sitting at the moment; the rooftop. She quickly moved aside to give him some space so he could sit beside her. As he approached Julia, he draped what seemed to be a blanket on her back.

"Thought you need it, and I was right."

It was indeed cold up there so she accepted it gratefully. "Thanks."

Darren merely shrugged and joined her. He was looking around for awhile, watching the view that surrounding them in silent. Julia watched him carefully; he did not say it out loud but the amazement was clearly printed on his expression.

Julia did not blame him; the view was indeed extraordinary. The city dazzled with colorful lamps, skyscrapers scattered everywhere, and the buildings' architecture was magnificent beyond their imagination. It was like heaven itself.

Heaven made of twelve districts' sweat and blood.

Even though it was almost midnight, they still could hear the party before Hunger Games in a loud, wild voice coming from below them.

"It feels so surreal," Darren said suddenly. "A week ago I planned to arrange a picnic at the meadow with you. Now we're living in a nightmare."

Julia smiled sadly when she heard the plan. Typical Darren, always try to be spontaneous. "Sounds fun."

"Yeah . . ."

They both went silent for awhile, letting the wind chilled the atmosphere as the party beneath them still going strong and even getting louder.

"Jule, about the tactics that Clark told us earlier; I was thinking . . ."

Julia raised her eyebrow, waiting, but Darren seemed reluctant to say it.

"What is it?"

He was quiet for a moment, and then he sighed and with a careful tone finally said, "I don't want us to go empty handed in the Quarter Quell."

Julia's reaction was exactly the same with what he predicted. "You want us to go into the bloodbath?" She taunted him in disbelief.

"Of course not! I'm the one who will do it," he said as if it was obvious.

Julia was about to deliver another protest when Darren put his both hands on her shoulder and looked at her straight in the eyes.

"Look, I know the risk is high, but we need those supplies. It's Quarter Quell, Julia; who knows what they will put us into!"

"It's too dangerous, Darren," she almost pleaded. "Did you see how big that Walker guy is? Forget him, as soon as the game starts _everyone_ will be out of control!"

"I won't do it if . . ."

"It's either we do it together or not at all."

Darren blinked twice hearing that. "You can't expect me to let you be in danger!"

"Then don't!" Julia realised she just shouted at him and regretted it immediately. She hated it when she was the one who caused the hurtful look in his face.

"Sorry," Darren murmured ashamedly, felt extremely guilty. "I thought it was . . ."

"I know, but it's just not worth it," Julia said desperately. "I don't want . . . Let's just stick to the plan, okay?"

Julia did not finish her words; how could she? She was terrified of the game, but nothing scared her more than seeing her best friend died because of her. Darren's eyes reflected defeated. He only nodded quietly and did not say anything until they went back to their room.

If only things would not get worse than that tomorrow.

* * *

"What do you think, Lauren?"

Walker's drunk voice snapped her from the light daydreaming as she was sitting beside the window and watching the view that surrounded them.

"About what?" She turned around and almost facepalmed herself when she saw him lying on the sofa, still drunk after he emptied the whole content of wine from their last dinner.

"The game, tributes, take your pick," he slurred through his words.

"Want my opinion? I think you will be dead by tomorrow if you don't clear that idiotic head of yours from the hangover," she spat, now turned around completely to face him. He laughed at her outburst instead and waved his hand as if it was nothing.

"I could still win this, sober or not. And honestly, I'm not that drunk. You're overreacting as usual!" His stupid accusation once again made her rolled her eyes.

"But d'you know who I want to kill the most? It's that Victor's Blood from Four. Victor's Blood my ass, I'll show 'em who's the real victor in here!" he yelled angrily, slamming his fist onto the cushion.

Lauren shifted back toward the window, observing the pitch black sky that had no stars unlike her district's.

"Be my guess, but leave Brian alone. He's mine."

She could not wait to lay her hands on good set of knives and aimed them toward that tribute's heart.

* * *

"You best get to rest now. Tomorrow is a big day," Corey dismissed them after dinner. Cashmere and Gloss had said everything they need to say and there was nothing Brian and Devin could do now but doing their best tomorrow. Their mentors said they already got sponsors; the news put them a bit at ease.

"See you tomorrow," Brian said to Devin with a weak smile as he, Gloss, and Corey raised from their seat and soon departed to their room. Devin intended to finish her drink so she stayed for a while with Cashmere who did the same thing.

"Nervous?" Cashmere asked her while she poured herself another glass of tequila. Devin shrugged and took a sip of her cherry juice.

"I'd lie if I said no."

Her mentor nodded. "I felt the same thing when I was in your position."

They drank in silence for awhile until Devin encouraged herself to ask.

"What is it like? Being a victor?"

She smirked at the question and took another sip. "That much, huh?" Devin blushed and her smirk grew wider. "It's great, of course, since you get to live while the other 23 were dead. Speaking of being a victor, do you want to know my secret?"

Devin leaned toward her curiously. "What is it?"

"No mercy."

Her brow raised for an inch. "Of course there won't be any. We have to kill . . ."

"Maybe I should rephrase it a bit." Cashmere looked at her into the eyes and without blinking, said, "No mercy at all."

She frowned. "I don't understand."

Her mentor sighed. "You want to know how I won? Here's what happened. There were only four of us left; me and my partner, a guy from Two and another one from Eleven. What will you do if you are in my position?"

"I hunt them down with my partner?" she said carefully, still confused where this will lead to.

"That kind of pity will get you killed. No, as soon as they announced that we were the remain tributes left, I took my knife and killed my partner."

Devin's heart skipped a beat. "You want me to kill Brian? We are supposed to work in team!"

"But can he keep up with you, with that kind of sickness? What if someone chase you two and he ran out of breath? Don't be a hypocrite by telling me you will help him," she said it with dead serious tone.

Devin wanted to deny it, but the words were stuck inside her. Cashmere finished her drink and stood up from the chair.

"I can see you want this badly in your eyes. So if you really mean it, prove it."

And with that she went to her room, leaving Devin with conflict in her heart and a man behind a wall, standing in the dark with clenched hands in anger.

* * *

Review, please? :3


	16. Chapter 16 - Worth It

A/N : I do not own Hunger Games nor StarKid

* * *

Julia could not sleep but she still kept her eyes closed, hoping that when she opened her eyes all the luxury, people in weird dress, and this whole nightmare disappeared. Any time soon, Dobby, her dog, would bark and she would wake up in her old bed. Darren would laugh at her when she told him about her dream and then forgot all about it.

It was a pathetic effort to escape from the reality. The fact that in the next few hours she would fight for her life along with the other 23 tributes.

Her limbs moved like a robot as she dressed herself with the outfit from the dresser. It was a thick dark brown t-shirt, black trousers, and a pair of black combat boots. The boots fitted her perfectly and, to her relieve, was really comfortable so now all she had to worry about was the strength of her legs.

When she was about to go to the dining room, he met Darren in front of his room. He stopped moving and for a while they just looking at each other without a word. Then slowly, Darren moved closer to her and he embraced her tightly; hugging her like it was their last chance to do it.

Darren did not offer any sort of comfort and neither did she. They made a promise not to lie to each other when they were kids and telling the other that it was going to be fine would be a big lie. Instead, they just spent this last moment in silent; promised to themselves that they would try their best to protect each other until the end, no matter which ending they would get.

It took everything she got not to cry that moment.

She lost her appetite as soon as both of them, Clark, and the stylists sit on the dining table and the Avox brought the food in. Darren seemed to have the same problem because he only ate toasts and drank a lot of water. However, she decided to force herself to eat because she would never know when she would be able to eat again.

After that, Clark escorted Darren and herself to the hovercraft that would bring them to the arena. At the lift, Clark gave each one of them a quick hug and said, "I do whatever I can from here and you do your best there, okay?"

They both nodded without a word; afraid that they would fall apart if they tried to speak.

When the lift opened, they could see the hangar with a hovercraft ready to take off. Together, they walked toward the plane and bid their farewell to Clark at the stairs before the officers pushed them inside. Half of the tributes were there already; few of them chatting with their partner casually while the others sat with tangled hands and looked down to their feet. Julia and Darren took the seat that the officer pointed at and copying the second group's pose.

As soon as the last tributes were in the hovercraft, the plane took off to wherever the arena was. There were no windows so they could not tell if the journey was still long or they would land soon. The only distraction from the tension was when the officers injected the tracker onto their arm. Julia definitely did not enjoy this one.

When they finally landed, each tribute was lead by Peacekeepers to their own preparation room. Darren gave her a reassurance nod before he disappeared into the alley. Julia felt as if her legs were made by iron; going through the underground path felt so surreal for her that she still wished this was just a sick joke or a mere dream.

Her hope crumbled when she reached the room. It was small and once again had no windows; almost similar to a prison for her. At the corner of the room there was a glass tube big enough to fit a person in it. She literally shook when she saw it; realised that it would brought her up to the arena.

Krum, her stylist, was already waiting for her. He gave a brief squeeze on her shoulder before dressing her with a thick coat and tied her hair into a ponytail in silent. She did not chat much with him since they first met so it did not surprise her.

"The fabric is made to prevent cold and water," Krum suddenly said with a low voice. "Judging from your boots, I believe the arena will be snowy, or covered with water at the least."

The information struck her hard. They never had snow in District 11, the worst weather was a storm once and that was not even occurred frequently. What if they put her and Darren in such climate?

Krum seemed like he notice this because he put both of his hands onto her shoulder and looked straight into her eyes.

"If the cold is unbearable, stay close to your partner instead of making fire. Eat as much as you can, it'll increase your body temperature."

She blinked twice and slowly nodded. He gave a brief smile before pulling her into a tight hug. Julia was taken aback by this but quietly felt grateful that he actually cared for her.

When he let her go, her feet felt like a jelly as she, very slowly, walked into the tube. The moment all of her limbs were inside it, the glass door slid and sealed her in total silence. She looked at Krum for the last time and he raised his thumb for her with a sad smile on his face. She mouthed a silent thank you when the plate beneath started to move and lifted her up to whatever they had prepared.

She was ready. She _had _to.

* * *

Darren instantly gulped when suddenly a large amount of water showered him. The jacket protected most of his body from the rain but the chill of cold water that hit his face and each part of his skin that did not got covered by waterproofed fabric still shocked him.

To say it was raining would be underestimating the situation because it was actually a storm, complete with loud thunders blaring above them. He almost jumped out of the plate when a thunder boomed really close to them; the lightning gave him enough light to see that the other tributes were as shocked as him. If the game had started, he would think they were trying to fry all of them.

_47_

_46_

_45_

The counting down number above the Cornucopia just started and along with it his heart rate increased. He squinted his eyes, tried to see through the rain to find Julia. It was fortunate for them (or not; depends from which point of view you saw it) that the moon showed up that night (or afternoon; Capitol likes to mess around with the timing) so the arena was not entirely pitch black. However, it took a while for him to find Julia because of the lack of light and he had to work hard to see through the heavy rain but nevertheless he finally found her. She was standing between Nick Lang and Jeff Blim, three tributes from his left. Right at the same moment, Julia had also found him and their eyes met; he saw fear but other than that she seemed okay.

_35_

_34_

_33_

Their eyes shifted onto the surroundings. They were in an empty land with the Cornucopia and all of the supplies lay in front of them. Most of them were colored in white so it would stand out on the dark ground, and he could see there were lots of them scattered around the black horn. The nearest backpack, which was the smallest, was approximately 15 meters while the mouth of the horn was 30 metres behind it.

The forest was surrounding them and when another lightning flashed, Darren could see small mountain on the right side of the woods.

_26_

_25_

The bad weather actually gave him advantage; it made other tributes hard to see each other and therefore it was a small chance that no one would be targeting on him. He was small and a pretty good runner. The forest was not too far from them too if he needed to escape the bloodbath.

He could do it.

_21_

_20_

_19_

He turned back to Julia and almost immediately she shook her head franticly toward him, as if she could read his mind. Their fight last night rose inside his mind; he remembered well that Julia said it was not worth it, but what if he could grab something useful? What if he could get a knife, the only weapon they were good with? Or even food? God knew they would needed it sooner or later.

_14_

_13_

_12_

He could do it. He knew he could. It would be worth a lot.

_10_

_9_

He turned to his left and just by looking at her, Darren told Julia silently that he would do what she forbid.

_6_

_5_

He saw her yelling something to him, but her voice was hopelessly beaten by the storm. He ignored her and pointed toward the forest for her as a signal to wait for him there.

_3_

_2_

He prayed she would obey him, for if anything happened to her he would not forgive himself.

_1_

The moment it hit zero, it was a total chaos.

Twenty four tributes jumped off the plate and scattered toward every direction. Darren only focused his attention toward the Cornucopia and that was where he ran toward. He was glad he had a strong leg; it did not take long for him to reach the backpack he eyed earlier and quickly snatched it from the ground. He did not stop running, though; instead he went further toward the bigger backpacks area.

He heard someone's scream faintly and soon the canon boomed, and then followed by another one. The sound of terror plus the chill that penetrated his skin made his heart turned cold. Thunder boomed and for a moment the lightning illuminated the arena.

The sight made his heart sunk.

At the mouth of the Cornucopia, about 10 meters from where he stood, the Careers stood with weapon on each hand. Walker just dropped Strauss into the ground; his sword glistened in red. Not far from them, few tributes had fallen from Lauren's knife and Devin's arrow.

His heart beat harder. He needed to get out of there before once of them targeted him next. Quickly, Darren grabbed the nearest backpack and turned his feet toward the woods.

Suddenly, all of the air was taken from him when someone hit him hard and they both fell onto the muddy ground. Rosenthal was climbing on top of him, efficiently pinning him, and tried to steal the bag on his arms. Darren grappled blindly with his arm and kicked him repeatedly, but most importantly tried to defend the precious items.

"Give me those!" Rosenthal screamed in frustration and flew a hard punch on Darren's face. He tasted blood but still tried to fight him back. For a lean tribute, he pinned him hard onto the ground and did not leave him chance to escape. The rain did not help him either; he almost choked few times when the water ran into his nose and mouth and blinded him.

When he thought he was going to lose, he saw a pair of hands full with mud came from Rosenthal's back and in a quick move planted it hard on his eyes. He instantly screamed in pain and stood up; retreated both of his hands to tend his eyes. The person who did it pushed him hard to topple him and quickly aided Darren to his feet.

"Julia?" Darren shouted, startled and angry in the same time. Julia did not say anything and only pulled him up with a stone expression.

Before they could say anything, they could hear Rosenthal coughed hard from beside them and when Julia and Darren turned around, they could see an arrow protruded from his chest.

"_RUN!_"

Darren grabbed the bags and with Julia, they ran as fast as they can from the bloodbath. The black cloud slowly faded away and more lights from the moon was lightning the arena. This was not good; they need to get away from there before the rain completely stopped or they would be an easy target.

Ten more meters from the woods. His lungs felt burned and Julia was panting hard on his side, but they did not lower their speed. Two more explosions from the canon making them ran faster than ever in their life.

A sharp pain suddenly burst on Darren's right arm and he yelped in pain. The pain made him dropped the big backpack but Julia stopped him from retrieving it back.

"Leave it!" she yelled, pulling him with her until finally they reached the forest. He gritted his teeth to suppress the pain and kept running. They did not stop until they could not see the Cornucopia behind them and was literally out of breath to keep running.

They both slumped between the roots of a big tree, leaning to the tree side by side with the bloodbath behind them. The rain had stopped completely now, but they still shivered from the chill water that soaked them. Darren closed his eyes and tried to gulp the air that would not go into his lungs but when he shifted his injured arm made contact to the wood and he could not stifled a groaned.

That was when he saw his arm. The arrow managed to rip his jacket and the skin beneath it pretty deep and now it was bleeding heavily; blood soaked into his jacket and some of it dropped into the ground from his fingers.

"Do-don't move, Darren," Julia stammered in panic when she saw it too. When Darren opened his eyes, she was already recovered and was kneeling beside him.

"Check the bag," he suggested weakly, already felt light headed from the blood lost. Julia took the bag from beside him and quickly poured the content to the ground.

A container, a roll of bandage, and a pocket knife dropped from the bag. Julia almost choked in tears as she grabbed the bandage and started to tie his injury above his jacket as a pad. Darren closed his eyes again to block the pain while she worked on his arm.

A moment later, a quiet sob broke the silence. He slowly turned his head to Julia and saw her stifled her cry.

"Hey, don't cry. I'm fine," he joked with a weak smile. She continued to wrap his arm as more tears fell from his face until Darren's other hand stopped her worked.

"Jule, I'm fine," he said with a more serious tone. She sniffed and finished tying the bandage before pulling him into a tight hug.

"You idiot!" she sobbed hard on his shoulder. "Don't do it again. Please, for me."

Her voice broke at the last part and broke his heart. He embraced her with his healthy arm but did not make the promise.

For he would do it again if it could save them both, and especially her.

* * *

Review please? *hides behind a rock


	17. Chapter 17 - First Strike

A/N : The aftermath bloodbath! I'm going to declare who are the fallen tributes in the next chapter, I'm not going to rush things here so I hope you keep reading this ;)

Vuraangreg : I listened to AVPSY, how bout that? :| And thanks, glad you like it!

Disclaimer : I do not own Hunger Games nor StarKid, duh!

* * *

Brian was already freezing even before the game started. The rain soaked him in less than 10 seconds and it did no good to his asthma. He could feel his own breath wheezing a bit from the chilling weather.

The arena was a little bit dramatic for Capitol standard, with the numerous thunders kept booming to add the already too much tension. The amount of water pouring on them was merciless; luckily the jacket gave him some protection toward the cold water and strong wind.

He was eyeing the Cornucopia; with the high score he got he was pretty sure there were at least a pair of sai sword for him in that horn, but the problem was his lungs. Could he compete with the other tributes when he already had trouble in breathing?

Not just that; he was alone this time. He thought Devin was different, but when he misheard her and her mentor last night, she was indeed a true Career. Career always fight for themselves and could not be trusted.

The countdown was almost finished. Everybody was ready to leap off their plate for the supplies that were scattered in front of them. He saw Walker two tributes from his right, grinning sadistically toward the Cornucopia; Lauren was four tributes from Walker's right, she also had the hungry look in her eyes. Then his gaze fell on Devin, who were apparently looking at him at the same time; but there were no smile or grin on that face. She looked concern toward him instead.

Was this some kind of a sick game? Did Cashmere tell her to pretend that everything was okay between them? Or she was simply looking for the opportunity to stab him in the back? He ignored her and focused on the Cornucopia and how to deal with the pain in his chest.

When the countdown ended, everyone except him jumped off the plate and dashed toward the supplies. He went down a bit late and only managed to do a slow jogging instead, making him as the last tribute to approach the Cornucopia. However, none of them had attacked him so far because he was a Career too, and he thanked God for that.

Brian passed a set of knives on the ground and grabbed it as a temporary weapon and he did not regret it because a pair of tributes, he thought their name was Moses and Lily, ran toward his direction with a backpack on both back.

He could not let them escape the bloodbath; the quicker this sick game ends the better for him. Unfortunately for Brian, Moses had recognized him from afar and turned their direction to the left, aiming the other side of the forest. Brian cursed and run faster to catch up with them; his lungs protested him but he did not lower his speed.

Moses and Lily were slowly leaving him behind as Brian's breathe getting shorter by time. The forest was ten meters ahead from them and he knew he would not be able to catch them in time. He pulled out one of the knife from the sheath and threw it as hard as he could toward Lily.

He knew he hit the mark the moment she screamed in pain.

"Lily!"

Brian heard Moses shouted as his partner fell into the ground with the knife protruding from her back. Moses looked torn between helping his dying friend or kept running toward the woods as he saw Brian unsheathed another knife.

When Brian was about to aim him next, suddenly Moses' arms were thrown into the air as a sign of surrender. "Please don't kill me! I can help you," he pleaded when Brian approached them with knife on his hand. _Smart move_, Brian thought, relieved because he could not run any longer than his lungs allowed him to.

Brian turned his running into a walk while trying his best to suppress his wheezing breathe and kept walking until he was face to face with the District 3's tribute. Without a warning, he smacked him hard on his face, making him stumbled to the muddy ground and groaned in pain. In a second he was standing on top of Moses; hands still holding the knife to threatening him.

"And with what . . . exactly are you going to do . . . to help us?" Brian panted badly between the words.

Moses spitted blood and proposed his offer carefully. "I can make a device to track the signals coming from our trackers."

"Nice try," Brian mocked him as he prepared to stab him. Moses' eyes grew wide as he followed the knife.

"No no, I swear! I managed to destroy the Capitol's force field at the scoring so they gave me high score for that! I can help you!" he helplessly tried to convince him.

Brian's chest rose and fell as the rain was pouring above them. Could it be that he was telling the truth? If that was true, then it meant that . . .

"We'll see about that," Brian finally said coldly. "Get up!"

Brian did not wait for him to find his feet and pulled his jacket roughly to jerk him up. He raised his knife in front of his face to make sure he understood what he was facing now.

"If you run," Brian saved his breath and only pointed toward Lily, whose moan was covered by the sound of the rain. He did not wait for a reply and merely shoved Moses toward the Cornucopia where the others were waiting for him, leaving no choice for Moses but to leave his dying partner behind.

At the tenth steps they took, the canon announced Lily Marks' death; another dead tribute on the bloodbath.

* * *

"Damn it!" Devin cursed in frustration beside her as her arrow missed Darren and he along with his partner managed to escape into the woods. Her eye sight was blocked badly by the rain and the strong wind always changed her arrow's direction, making her missed several times. "Must they use a freaking _storm_ for the bloodbath?!"

"For once, I agree with you," Lauren grumbled, also completely pissed off that she only killed two tributes so far while the others disappeared to the woods thanks to the rain.

After they said that, the black cloud slowly dissolved and the rain became a drizzle. Lauren threw her hands sullenly into the air and laughed in sarcasm. "Finally!"

It was too late for them, though. Once the moon gave enough light for them to see the arena clearly this time, the only tributes left on the Cornucopia were Lauren, Devin, Walker who stood near the forest, apparently succeeded chasing down Sango Tajima before escaping into the forest was just killed her with his new sword; Joey and Bonnie who was on the other side of the Cornucopia where she stood, and . . .

"What the hell are you doing?" Lauren yelled madly when Brian approached them with terrified Moses on his side. Walker, Joey, and Bonnie had joined them on the mouth of Cornucopia and looked curiously toward their new guest.

Brian did not say anything to them and only shoved Moses to their feet. "Speak," he commanded him in low, threatening voice. He mumbled something about looking for his sai and went inside, leaving Moses' life in their hands. Devin excused herself soon after that, saying she wanted to help him.

Lauren could see something was wrong with Brian; he looked off even before the game started. Maybe this was the right time to figure out his weakness; she might use it to bring down Devin too. When she glanced to her right, Joey was standing behind her. Perfect.

"Speak now and we might not kill you right now," Lauren barked at Moses who jumped slightly when she suddenly addressed him.

As everyone's attention was on Moses, Lauren slowly retreated herself and signaled Joey to follow her. He followed her in confusion and stopped few meters from the group.

"Go inside the Cornucopia and watch Brian and Devin for me," Lauren asked in low voice to Joey.

"Why?" Joey asked, still confused on her request.

"Because I said so. Go!" She spat harshly. Joey raised his hands to stop her outburst but he did what she told him to and quietly went inside the small building.

Lauren massaged the bridge of her nose, suddenly felt tired for dealing with a group of clowns in her side. She then joined the group back and trying to decide whether they should keep Moses or not.

* * *

Devin was worried when she saw Brian the first time since the game begun. Before the game, she could recognize from his expression that something was wrong with him, but to her surprise he ignored her completely and made her heart sunk a bit. Now she knew something was indeed wrong with him. His face was very pale and there was a tint of blue on his lips. When he excused himself toward the Cornucopia, he walked really slowly; too slow even for her exhausted body standard. She quickly made the same excuse and followed him.

The building was apparently shaped into L. There were more weapons there, hanging on the rack along with boxes stacked neatly on each side of the path. Devin was standing on the turn and peaked a bit to see if everything was okay with Brian.

"_Brian!_" she gasped when her partner was already on his knees. She came right in time to catch him before he fell completely. Gingerly, she dragged him behind a stack of boxes to hide them and then lie him down on his back. Brian's eyes were closed, his breathe sounded like a big effort for him, and his whole body shook. When she caught him, she could feel his body was freezing and completely soaked in wet like her. Judging from his clattering teeth, she was right.

The cold weather must be triggering his asthma. Acting based on this fact, Devin quickly dried her hands as best as she could and blew them to make it warmer. She then put her palms on his face and repeated it over and over until his face was less pale. On her tenth attempt, Brian coughed weakly, but to her relieve his body did not trembled as bad as earlier and he seemed to breathe easier now. She did not stop there. She struggled a bit with his damp jacket but finally able to open the zip. Devin did the same thing on hers and carefully pulled Brian up so he was half sitting and made him leaning to her. She embraced him tightly, hoping that he would be warmer that way and constantly blowing warm air on his neck.

"Devin . . . " She heard his weak voice on her ear and after that felt him struggled to get off of her but she only held him tighter.

"It's okay, just breathe deeply," she instructed him gently while she checked on the turn periodically to see if someone came to them. He stopped fighting her and for a moment they could only hear Brian's harsh voice.

"Why?" Brian asked suddenly, his voice was still weak and harsh.

"Why what?" Devin asked confusedly.

"You . . . helping me . . . "

"I'm your partner, you _idiot_! How many times should I tell you that?"

She did not want to be mad but her voice betrayed her. Brian fell silent while she closed her eyes and tried to maintain her emotion. Being mad was not going to help them right now.

She had decided it. Once Brian was fit enough, they would run away from their fellow Careers. They could not know about Brian's sickness.

* * *

Joey's heart rose when the realization hit him.

Brian was sick.

He glanced outside the door, where the others were still interrogating Moses, and then back to Brian and his partner. Should he tell Lauren? If he did, Lauren and Walker would definitely kill them sooner or later. That girl's hatred toward Brian was out of the question. Even though he did not like them since they first met, at this moment when all of their acting fell apart, Joey felt sorry for them. They were never like those from Two, after all.

Suddenly an idea crossed his mind. Maybe they could help him and Bonnie broke the alliance? They were never meant to have any ally, anyway; moreover someone like Lauren and Walker.

He quietly left the building, c to join the rest of them. When his eyes caught with Lauren's, she asked the obvious question silently.

Joey shook his head and shifted his attention back to Moses while a plan started to grow inside him.

An ambitious and risky plan that he had to try for the sake of Bonnie, himself, and maybe for Brian and Devin too.

* * *

Any guess who will go down in the next chapter? Let me now so I can spice up a bit *evil grin*


	18. Chapter 18 - Improvisation

A/N : A quick update! I'm trying to rotate the spotlight to each tributes so if you're rooting for someone and I haven't written them in, please tell me! Oh and The list of fallen tribute can be found in this chapter.

Vuraangreg : It was really great! A perfect ending for epic story, nuff said. I think they're planning on posting it in YouTube this year so just be patient until then :D I have plans for Moses, Arielle, Chris, and Elona so don't worry!

RavenclawStarshipRanger : *spolier* No, she's not ;)

Disclaimer : I do not own Hunger Games or StarKid

* * *

Moses dropped his screwdriver after working for six hours nonstop since the Career captured him.

He thanked his mentor, Beetee, for teaching him few tricks to make something with a box of scraps. Forget about scraps; the Capitol gave him everything he needed that he was certain he could blow up the arena; just like his mentor did in the past.

Even before Beetee knew him and his talent, Moses had excelled himself with technologies back in his district. He was a loner because no one could understand what was going on inside his mind, but no one denied the fact that he was indeed one of the best engineers District 3 ever got. After his mentor acknowledge this, he put more interest on him rather than on Lily. They both spent more time talking about ambitious things, such as the most tempting idea to recreate Beetee's famous electrical device that earned him the title of Victor. He was also the person that gave him the idea to disable Capitol's forcefield at the scoring, and all he did was cutting a single cable to make it happened.

Apparently, the odds were not in his favor.

He tried his luck by going into the Bloodbath; the Capitol must be preparing some kind of technician tools for him with the amount of score he got, and he was right. The plan was for he and Lily to grab the equipment, find a place to hide while he worked on Beetee's electrical device.

He never thought the Career would catch them, moreover killed Lily on the way.

His proposition about the tracking device was pure improvisation. He must thought something quick to save himself from Brian's knife, and what could be more tempting for Career than to be able to locate their prey?

It was not just a bluff; Moses could actually create it, but it also could be a suicide mission for him. Even a fool could tell that as soon as the device was done, they would not need him anymore. Escaping was out of the question since there were two archer in the Career group. The only way was to make them depended on him, even after the tracker was done.

After the Career threatened him with whatever they could think of if he did not cooperate and he convinced them with the best don't-kill-me expression he could make, he retrieved his backpack near the forest with Bonnie's company. Moses was relieved to see that the Capitol had collected the dead tributes when he reached the location; he did not think he could see Lily lying in the cold ground, knowing it was his fault he could not find the tools faster enough for them to reach the forest. Then he went to the plate where they stood before the game started, giving Bonnie excuse to get more supply from the underground circuit. She was ready not to leave him but he could not know what he was doing, so he told her to give him some privacy; politely, of course.

"Look, I can't concentrate if someone's watching. You want me to work fast, right?" he finally said, dropping the nice attitude after Bonnie still did not want to leave him alone to work. "How many times should I tell you that I won't run away?"

"How can you guarantee that you won't plan something funny with your tools? Cause tracking device sounds like a big joke to me," she confronted him; hands moved to her bow.

_That's because you're coming from a fishing district!_

"You don't believe me? Fine." Moses dropped all the tools in his hands and opened his arms as if challenging her. "Shoot me and good luck finding all of the other tributes by yourself."

His heart drummed like crazy but he did not break the eye contact. Now he was completely bluffing, but it was the only way.

Bonnie eyed him for quite some time until she finally lowered her bow. Moses breathe gratefully in silence.

"You better work fast," and with that Bonnie left him to join her allies around the camp fire near the Cornucopia.

It had been six hours since then, and so far Moses had dig three plates with his bare hands. The energy bar they gave to him was able to suppress his hunger for awhile but it was still just a small snack. Dropping everything in his hands, including the crappy tablet he made from the plate and a small computer underneath it, he lay onto the wet ground to catch his breath.

Suddenly, Capitol's emblem appeared above him, along with the anthem, and flashed the fallen tributes from today's bloodbath. The laugh from the Cornucopia's direction stopped immediately; they must had watched it too.

Lily's face appeared the first, making a tight knot inside his stomach. The others were Britney Coleman from Five, Nick Strauss and Denise Donovan from Six, and Brian Rosenthal with his partner Sango Tajima from Nine. Once again the emblem appeared, then the light was off and everything went silent.

Moses closed his eyes tiredly. There were still 17 tributes to go; a small number of death for a bloodbath. It would be a long game, then.

Few minutes later, he forced himself to get back to work and dig the fourth plate. He still need few more cables and something to collect the transmitter from the trackers, if only he knew what it was.

Suddenly, his fingers hit something hard on the ground. Cursing a bit from the ache, Moses tried to wipe the mud off the object and found out it was a metal box.

_Metal box?_

The realisation hit him hard. Franticly, he dug more to clean the whole thing and found numerous cables connected to the box. His heart beat faster as he tried to open it but the lock was as strong as hell. Moses had to dig into the tool kit and retrieved two wires to pick the lock by force. A low click told him he had succeeded and with his trembling hand he opened it.

Inside, there was a small screen that showed random numbers and alphabet, it changed every five seconds. It was meaningless to most people but when Moses saw it for the first time, his smile grew wider.

Moses had hit the ultimate jackpot.

* * *

"Six," Joey could hear Lauren's grumble from across the fire after the broadcast was over. She still appeared to be mad on the storm earlier.

"Relax. After all, where's the fun if we kill them all in the bloodbath?" Walker commented lightly as he took a sip from the bottle of water in his hand.

As both of them were debating, Joey took a glance on Brian and Devin. They were both quiet since the bloodbath, only gave a short answer if they were asked. Brian still looked pale and coughed from time to time but other than that, he looked much better than the last time he saw him.

He had told Bonnie about his plan when they made the camp fire and was relieved she (reluctantly) agreed with him. She, just like him, preferred to fight Brian and Devin if it was necessary than with Lauren and Walker. The problem was to say it to them; if Joey did it wrong then they would face four of them at once.

At the corner of his eye, Joey saw Devin rose up and walked toward the supply box where they kept the food and water. Joey quickly followed her and thanked himself for putting the box far away from the camp fire.

Devin's eyebrow raised an inch as she saw him standing beside her, but she ignored him and simply dug her hand into the supply.

"I know Brian has asthma," Joey quietly said to her.

The impact was almost immediately. She was about to step away from him but luckily he managed to grab her hand and pulled her close to him, facing the other way from the camp fire and blocking themselves from the others. Joey glanced behind his back; the others seemed distracted enough to notice both of them. She was breathing quickly and clearly getting paler.

"Lauren asked me to follow you into the Cornucopia," he continued in a low voice, did not let her go.

Her eyes grew wider and he could feel her body getting tensed, but she stopped fighting him.

"So what happens now?" she murmured slowly, looking straight into his eyes with no indication of giving up.

Joey shrugged a bit on that question. "I haven't told them, if that's what you ask."

"What do you want?" Devin asked suspiciously this time.

"An alliance."

"We're already . . ."

"Without Two."

Her brow furrowed at that. "You want us to break the alliance?"

"You need to keep Brian and yourself away from them; I never want to make the alliance in the first place. Yes, we need to get out of here," he spoke quickly, noticed that they should return soon or the others would be suspicious.

Devin eyeing him for five seconds with a skeptical look as if waiting him to announce the mutiny to the rest of them. However she did not see it coming; so in the end she gave a curt nod, retrieved a bottle of water from the box, and returned first to the camp fire.

Joey leaned into the box, relieved that his plan worked smoothly. Now, all the need to do was to find the opening . . .

* * *

"Meredith, stop!" Dylan pleaded, clearly out of breath. The girl, few meters in front of him, finally stopped and waited for him to catch up. While she panted slowly, hands on her knees as she catch her breath; her partner was dropping onto the ground, gulping for air.

They had managed to escape from the bloodbath with two backpacks on each back. Dylan should thank his partner for that; before he could stop her, Meredith was the first person to reach the Cornucopia. She snatched two backpacks and before the Career could catch them, they flee into the forest.

While Dylan had not retrieved his lost breath, Meredith put down her backpack and poured the contents on the damp ground. They got a bottle of water, a set of knife, medicine kit, and some dried fruit. She threw the bottle to Dylan who accepted it gratefully and taking one big gulp from it, knowing that they should save it for later. Meredith opened Dylan's bag and found almost with the same content, except it got one sleeping bag on it. It was clearly a good start for both of them.

"Maybe we should walk a bit more, find a place to hide and sleep," Dylan suggested as he stood up and returned the bottle to her.

"Okay. Here, just in case someone's ambush us," Meredith handed him one of the knife while she already prepared one inside his jacket. Dylan hid it on his trouser's pocket and they continued to walk farther into the woods.

They had not walked more than twenty meters when Dylan heard a stifled sob coming from their left.

"Your hear that?" Dylan asked her in low voice, preparing his knife. They both went quiet and Meredith nodded. "Should we check on it?"

"I would prefer us not to; it could be a trap," he reluctantly said.

The sob was fading away, but they could still hear it. Meredith nudged her partner before she carefully walked toward the sound. Dylan finally followed her but she saw he had prepared his knife in his hand.

They had walked meters and Meredith finally able to see the person they heard earlier. She pushed Dylan to the nearest tree few meters from the source of voice and took a peek from it.

She could see Julia and Darren from Twelve sitting between the croak of roots; Julia was crying on her partner's shoulder while he patted her carefully with his left arm. There was a smear of blood in his jacket and face.

"Meredith, what are you . . ."

Dylan was too late to realize that Meredith had moved from his side toward the pair. She did not try to hide her presence anymore and when she appeared in front of them, the reaction she got was predictable.

Julia was faster than Darren. She grabbed a knife from the ground and stood in front of him as a shield. He tried to stand but stumbled back to the ground with a stifled moan. Her attention went back to him but she did not lower her knife. Her eyes shifted from Meredith to Dylan cautiously who had joined them still with a weapon in his hand.

"Put down your knife, you scare them," Meredith pleaded to her friend. Julia eyeing them with a terrified look; tears still streaked in her face. Dylan hesitated for a moment but it seemed he saw what she saw to because soon he obliged her and put it back on his trousers.

"Please . . . we don't have anything valuable item to be stolen," Darren's weak voice pleaded at them.

"He's hurt. Please," Julia continued his words that were lost in pain. All of them realize that if Meredith and Dylan wanted to kill them, their knife would not help them.

"Do you have water?" Meredith asked suddenly. The question startled three of them.

Julia slowly shook her head, clearly looked confused. Without a word, Meredith pulled out the water Dylan just drank from the backpack's pocket and threw it on their feet. She then reached for Dylan's hand and led them away from the dumbfounded tributes before they could say anything.

Meredith and Dylan continued to walk for a couple of minutes until Dylan could not hold himself.

"Why did you do that?"

She just shrugged and kept walking in silence.

Dylan shook his head but could not resist a small smile, knowing that his friend had not changed a bit.

* * *

Happy ending, for now *evil grin*. Please kindly review, it'll make my day!


	19. Chapter 19 - Unbreakable Vow

A/N : I'm very sorry for the speed of my writing! The college life was being hard on me at the moment and I had a major writer's block, but I finally able to finish this one so I hope you like it :) Thanks for those who still following this story and for new followers, hi!

Oh and warning for a dose of angst in this chapter, but I still hope you like it and did not chase me down after reading it, though...

Disclaimer : I do not own StarKid or Hunger Games

* * *

The sun was almost rose when Moses finally finished the device. He dropped himself onto the damp ground and rested his eyes for a while. His whole body was cramping from the constant sitting and squinting at the circuit since the light from a little fire he made was not giving enough light to work with.

The metal box he found last night was in fact the main computer of Capitol itself. It the beginning he doubt his thoughts because it was simply too good to be true; but when he insert a line of command in programming language onto the screen, a big tree at the edge of the forest fell instantly. The Careers and Moses jumped in shock and they quickly checked the area for possible trap or incoming tribute but of course they found none of that. No one was suspicious that he caused the fallen tree. He kept putting the same shock face when he went to check with them, but deep down in his mind he smiled in victory.

After they left him alone, he quickly worked on his device and connecting it to the main circuit so that he could be the operator to access it beside the Capitol. He did not sleep at all that night but it was worth a lot.

He let himself laughed a bit at the thought. Never he felt that proud after inventing something; this device he just finished was definitely his masterpiece.

Moses was the one who control the game now.

He looked at the mouth of Cornucopia. The Careers were still asleep around the already out bonfire. A reckless thought went through his mind as he rolled to sit. This was his chance to . . .

"Don't even think about it," said a woman's voice behind his back. Moses jumped in shock and when he turned, Lauren was already stood behind him with her knife ready. Since when did she . . .

"No, of course not. I was going to wake them up to tell that the tracking device is done," the lie went out of his mouth smoothly.

"Show me."

"I will, but before that," he grabbed the device from the ground and held it protectively against his chest, "I'll warn you that if you killed me, this device would be useless since I'm the only one who can use it."

Lauren smirked at his words to his surprise; he could feel goose bumps crawling on his skin as he stared at the Career tribute.

"Smart, I like that. Okay, I won't kill you _for now_. Now show me the closest tribute from us before I change my mind," she said with a cold smile. Moses had no choice but to obey her.

He typed random numbers and alphabet in the tablet (he made it as complicated as possible as a guarantee of his life) and soon enough red dots appeared on the screen. He held it for Lauren to see but still kept a distance between them.

The spots were scattered everywhere. Most of the dots were two pairs in the same location, a few was just stood alone and moving very slowly to other places. Moses could see a big group representing the Careers and himself in the middle of the arena.

Moses gave Lauren exactly ten seconds to observe the screen before it went blank itself. Lauren raised her eyebrows but he just shrugged. "Just another extra precaution. I'm not stupid."

"You and your device are starting to irritate me," she grumbled, then turned around onto her friends' direction and yelled at the top of her lungs. "Wake up! We're going to go hunting today!"

* * *

Nick stirred from his sleep when pain shot from his cramped arm that he used as a pillow. The sun almost rose completely when he looked at his surroundings. Mockingjays sang lullaby melodies for him as they were flying from one tree to another in groups. At his side, Arielle was still asleep; her back was facing him.

He did not blame her. Last night was just chaos for both of them. When the countdown ended, both of them went straight to the forest, not bothering to get any supply from the Cornucopia. They kept running until they were completely out of breath and could not see the Bloodbath behind them anymore. Luckily for them, they found a niche on the slope land and it was covered by a large tree so it was a perfect place to hide for now.

They held hands unconsciously as they Capitol announced the dead tributes. There were still 18 tributes left, a rather small number for a Bloodbath but they did not complain; no one deserved to die in this sick game. That night, they slept restlessly. Nick was planning to get up early so they could walk more to length their distance with the Careers and that was what he going to do this noon.

"Arielle," he gently shook her shoulder, "We need to go."

"Hmm?" She stirred quickly and blinked confusedly at their surroundings. "Where are . . . oh."

She went silent after that but Nick knew exactly what was bothering her. She thought she was dreaming about what happened last night. Nick gave a rub on her back, offering her his non verbal support.

"Sorry, but we need to move soon," he said apologeticly. She nodded in silent and both of them stood up, brushing the mud off their jacket.

"I'm sorry, I just . . ." She said suddenly, her face blushed. Nick just shrugged it off and did the favor for her not talking about it anymore by bringing up something else like . . .

"Are you hungry?"

Arielle seemed surprise by the sudden change of topic but she gladly collaborated. "No, not yet. I'm used to eat less than three times a day and I eat a lot before they launched us here so . . ."

"Yeah, me too."

Both of them were looking at each other for a second before bursting together into laughter. It was their first laugh ever since they were reaped, and it felt really good to laugh at something that was so ironic for both of them and the people in their district.

"You know, this could be our advantage from coming from poor district. We can survive longer without food than those Career tributes," he said after his jaw felt hurt from the laugh.

"Yeah, but we still need water," she jokingly slapped his arm. "Come on. Maybe if we're lucky there's a river nearby. I'm getting a bit thirsty."

They walked forward until the sun was exactly on top of them and, luckily for them, that was when they heard the sound of stream. Without a second run, they ran toward its direction and found a huge river, almost like a pond but with stream, divided the ground in front of them.

"Water!" Arielle screamed spontaneously. The heat and tiredness made her quickly jumped into the water without a second thought and gulping down the water. The stream was not too strong so he let her. Nick only laughed and followed, knelt at the riverside and took a gulp for himself. The water was cold and was freshened them instantly.

After he finished drinking, he looked over at his partner again. She still stood in the middle of the stream; the water reached her knees so it was deep enough to drag you off if the stream was getting stronger.

"If you're done drinking, come back! The stream could drag you with it!" he yelled at her to overcome the sound of stream, but she seemed did not hear him so he tried once again. "_Arielle!_"

He succeeded getting her attention this time. She turned around and their eyes met, but the glint of joy in her eyes quickly disappeared. He saw her opened her mouth, but before he could hear what she said, pain exploded from his head.

* * *

"Arielle!"

Nick's voice caught her attention and she quickly turned around to see what he was about to say to her. Since they were reaped together, he acted like her older brother that was made sense because he had Matt as his little brother; but sometimes he got too protective on her. Maybe if she could persuade her to join in the stream and for once had some fun . . .

However, it was not Nick's face that caught her attention first. It was the big figure behind Nick who held a rock on his hand.

It was Jim from District 5.

"Nick!" she yelled instantly, but it was too late.

As if everything was slowing down, she saw Jim raised the rock and slamming it into Nick's head. She saw the shock and pain from his eyes before collapsed and fell into the water.

"_NICK!_"

Arielle tried to approach him but the stream was getting stronger and slowed her moved. In her panic, she dug her hand into the bottom of the river to retrieve few stones and threw it to Jim's direction. The rocks were too far from its target and Jim completely ignoring her. He instead jumped into the stream and when she realised what he was trying to do, she grew frantic.

"Get away from him!" she screamed, still fighting the stream to get to Nick. She saw movement from where Nick just fell but her sight was blocked when Jim landed on top of him and literally pushed Nick down onto the water.

Arielle was finally able to get closer to them. She reached for a bigger rock and from Jim's back, she hit his head several times with it. Jim shouted in pain but still did not let Nick go and only shoved her back with one hand; the small body beneath him was struggling to fight him but it was clear who was stronger.

"Let him go!" she yelled after getting up from the water, getting more panicked when she saw Nick's resistance was getting weaker as the time ticked. She gave her hardest hit at Jim's head and it worked; he groaned and raised both of his hands to his bloody head and, as the result, letting Nick go. However, she did not see Nick move from the water or showing any kind of resistance anymore.

He was drowning.

Jim distracted her from Nick's figure by raising his hand toward her to hit Arielle but she hit hand away with the same rock and hit his head again, again, and again; countless time until Jim finally dropped into the water and the blood reddened the river around them.

The cannon exploded after a moment.

"Nick!" She threw the rock and quickly reached for Nick's limp body, afraid that the cannon was for him. With a lot of difficulty, she managed to hold his head above the water and franticly looking for his pulse.

She found none.

_No, it can't be! _

She began to drag him toward the edge of the river. It was a long and excruciating process but she did it. Nick still had not moved a bit; his eyes were closed and there was a tint of blue on his lips.

"Come on, Nick," she murmured much to herself, started to hit his chest to expel the water from his lungs. His head fell limply on to the left; water flowed out from his mouth but his chest did not moved. She kept doing it for a minute before realizing that tears were flowing from her eyes.

"Come on, Nick. It's not that hard. Just breathe!"

* * *

"_What are you doing, Matt?" Nick asked when he peaked into their shared room. _

_Matt shrugged and continued to write on his book. "Just something I came up with for the upcoming show in school?"_

"_Already?" He just graduated last year and he also joined the show last year with his friends; time really flies. "So what are you going to perform?"_

"_Well, since you already did Lord of the Rings, my friends and I are thinking about doing Harry Potter."_

"_That's a great idea! You should totally do it!"_

"_Yeah, but I'm still torn between taking one of the books and combining all of them into one play. Also who will play it, and the stage, the costumes," he threw his pen onto the bed, frustrated._

_Nick was quiet for a moment before he stepped inside and took Matt's book off his lap. He raised his brow for the unasked question and his brother nodded. He then began to flip each page and read all of the scribbles his brother made so far. _

"_I laughed that you made Draco rolled over the ground every single time he came," he laughed a bit, eyes still on the book. As he read more of it, his laughter came more frequently and by the end of it his stomach and jaw was cramping. "This is freaking hilarious! I can imagine this is going to be bigger than mine."_

"_Don't be silly, yours already reach sequel," he grumbled and retrieved his note back. _

"_Tell you what, after," he fell silent for a moment before continuing with a lower voice, "after the Reaping, I'll help you polish it if you still don't feel certain about it, though I doubt I can do anything more when you already got a great story there."_

_Matt grinned widely at that. "Is that a promise?"_

"_I would make an Unbreakable Vow if I had a wand."_

* * *

The cannon sounded for the second time that day

* * *

I'm soorrryyy! I just had to...


	20. Chapter 20 - Don't Look Back

A/N : Again, so sorry for the long await update! I had an artist block for a moment and then AVPSY came out; I'm emotionally drained! I think you all agree that it was an epic ending, do you? The fanfic bits was also gave a fun twist to the story. Part of me really glad that they know we're exist but I don't think I would encourage them to read this one, though... Hats off for The Langs, the casts, musician, and production team; can't wait for Twisted! *squee

Ok, back to this fanfic. I'd like to thank the newest reviewers and followers, I read all of them and I'm glad you like it so far!

Thanks and I hope you like this chapter!

* * *

"Nick . . ."

Arielle did not know how long she stayed there; slumped at her partner's cold body and just wept until she could not cry anymore. She knew she was supposed to leave the area soon, but she just could not do it.

Deep down in her broken heart, she wanted to believe that Nick was not dead; that any time soon he would wake up and she would punch him hard for scarring the hell out of her. She wanted to turn back the time so she could block the sound of the cannon and maybe she would feel his pulse beneath her trembling fingers.

And knowing that this was her fault made it ten times worse than being stabbed in the heart.

If only she did not leave Nick alone, they could fight Jim together. If she did not leave him, he did not have to call for her and then noticed Jim's present.

This was entirely Arielle's fault.

After all he had done for her, this was how she repaid him.

_I'm sorry_ was the only thing she could muttered repeatedly to her dead friend until she lost her voice.

* * *

"Are you sure that thing is working?" Joey asked the question that had been bothering all of them since they left Cornucopia.

"This _thing _is my creation. Of course it's working," Moses retorted back from the front line of their group, sounded really annoyed by the constant stupid question they had been asking him.

"Then why the hell we haven't met any tribute yet? We've been walking for hours by now!" Lauren exclaimed, also in frustration.

Before Moses had the chance to answer her, another sound of cannon erupted from the sky. They stopped walking abruptly and looked at each other with frown brows.

"That's the second one for today, and the first death was only . . . what, fifteen minutes ago? Do you think they release mutts on us?" Bonnie asked anxiously to no one in particular.

"I don't care. What's clear to me is that we missed the party!" Walker kicked the ground and moved toward Moses. Before the little man could figure out his intention, Walker grabbed him on the collar of his jacket and slammed him onto the nearest tree.

"_Wha . . !_ "

"I don't give a shit on how you do it. If I heard one more cannon sound and I was not responsible for it then I would make sure the next one is you!" Walker pressed a bit too harder on Moses' throat and choked the little man beneath him.

"Have it occurred to you that we're not the only predators in this game?"

To everyone's surprise, for the first time since the end of the Reaping, Brian voiced his mind even though his voice sounded a bit strained. Walker slowly turned to face him but Brian's hard expression did not fade away; instead it grew even colder if it was possible.

"Knock it off," he sighed when Walker still did not let Moses go, obviously did not want to start a fight. "If he's right, we are close to the target as we speak."

Walker threw deadly glare at him and for a moment none of them spoke. Walker's expression looked like he wanted to punch Brian that time for interrupting him, but in the end to everyone's relieve, he shoved Moses to the ground and walked away from him.

Moses coughed hard on the ground as he tried to catch his breath; the tablet lie forgotten on his lap. Lauren approached Walker, trying to calm his rage down. Joey dropped his backpack and shook his head with an obvious tired expression; he and his partner looked as if they were dealing with a bunch of kids. Brian leaned over to a tree near him with Devin on his side; it seemed the speech had drained a lot of his energy.

"Let's take a break for a while, how about that?" Joey suggested to the others but he threw a brief worry glance toward Brian. "I think it's time for lunch and . . ."

"Yeah, why not? Baby Joey is hungry again and it's time to feed him," Lauren cut him immediately with heavy sarcasm. "Seriously_, shut up!_"

Joey gritted his jaws and unconsciously his hand tightened on his spear. "Say that to me again."

"Guys," Moses' strained voice cut the feud between them; he already stood up and the device was back on his grip. "If this could make you all happy, we are surrounded by five tributes. Well, not actually surrounded like that," he quickly added when he saw the Careers' eyes widened, "There are one on the North, two in the East, and two in the West. There were originally three on the North but I think the cannons were for two of them."

"We could split up . . ."

"We are _not _going to split up!" Lauren yelled at Devin the moment she suggested the idea. She did not wait for her to reply and instead pointed a finger at Moses and barked at him. "Which one is the closest?"

Moses looked at the device one more time and without any hesitation said, "The one in the North."

"Good. Let's finish that one first!"

* * *

Moses massaged his neck constantly as they walked toward the target. Damn that crazy guy; he almost suffocated him from the grip alone. For a moment he thought he was finished!

The more he spent time with the Careers, the more Moses hated them; especially those from Two. Walker's outburst earlier proved that they had become Capitol's pion in the game. Their mindset was programmed to be a predator even before the game started.

They wanted to play? Fine. When he got the opening to escape, he would definitely redo the whole arena for them. Let the Careers taste their own medicine!

As they walked farther, they could hear faintly a sound of stream. It must be a big one because it was getting louder and louder each step they took toward North. Moses activated the screen to see if the dot was moving, but it was not. The tribute must had been injured or something, but one thing was for sure was that he or she was very close to them right now.

"I think the tribute is resting near the river," Moses announced the information he got to the others. They responded by pulling out their weapons from their bags and held it tightly in silent. He wished he could do the same thing; they did not even let him to keep a knife to defend his own life.

"He's mine," Walker growled slowly, smirking like a hungry wolf as he twirled his sword on his palm but everyone decided to ignore it.

They kept walking until they could see open space at what seemed to be the end of endless forest approximately half kilo from them. Moses could see the rocky ground and stream flowing toward West side of the arena. He was glad he could get out from the woods; being surrounded by good hidings for other tributes had put more stress with the pressure he already had.

He could not help but thinking whom they were approaching. Hopefully he or she would not go down without a fight. If he was lucky, he could use it as an opening to escape sooner that he expected. Or maybe he should wait until they eliminated the other four after this one . . .

"There she is!" Walker suddenly exclaimed, pointing his sword toward whatever he saw before the others could.

_She?_

Then Moses saw her. At the edge of the river, a figure crouched near the second person who lays motionless on the ground. The long hair definitely confirmed Walker's word that it was a female tribute.

Wait. That goldenrod yellow jacket. That brown wavy hair that was tied into a ponytail. All of the description looked familiar to him. Who was that tribute?

The girl straightened her body and when she rubbed her eyes, Moses and the others could finally get a clear vision on her.

He almost dropped his tablet when he recognized the face.

It was Arielle.

_Arielle._

Moses' heart sank and he unconsciously stopped walking. They were getting closer to her and she still had not realized their present. Panic started to creep all over his cells. Of all the tributes, he led the Careers to her instead.

"What's wrong? Keep moving!" Lauren hissed at him when she realized he was not on her side anymore.

Moses swallowed thickly and forced the words to come out of his trembling lips. "I'll wait at your back, can't stand blood." However, Lauren did not buy it and instead pushing him to the front line of the group.

"This should be easy," Walker said it as if he was going to recieve a present for his birthday.

Twenty more meters to go. He wanted to scream more than anything to distract them, to warn her, anything than could stop them from targeting her; but it would be the death of him if he did that.

What do I care if they killed her? I did not even know her. She was just a tribute that he should eliminate in order to get back home. Leaving the dirty job to the Careers would make his job easier.

Ten meters.

But she was not _just_ a tribute.

Not since the Parade.

Before the others knew what he were doing, he quickly jabbed a line of command on his tablet and then pressed enter.

"_Watch out!_"

In the following seconds, the line of trees that surrounded them broke down with no reason and collapsed abruptly to various direction.

He saw Brian pushed Devin right on time before one of the trees fell onto her. Another one cracked near where Moses stood and falling onto him, Lauren, and Walker. Lauren let him go and jumped away from him to avoid it. The tree missed them and instead slammed hard to the ground, separated him from Walker and Lauren.

"What the . . ." Lauren looked dumbstrucked as the trees around them kept falling down without any clear reason on what causing it. Then, slowly, her eyes wandered at Moses and shifted to the device on his hand.

A sudden realization seemed to creep over his mind and when Lauren's eyes met him, he knew she had figured out his secret.

Without another word, he leaped off the chaos and angry tributes toward the female tribute and did not look back after that.

He would not let them touch her, no matter what.

* * *

"_Watch out!_"

Brian threw himself at Devin when a pretty big tree started to collapse onto their direction. They landed hard right when it slammed onto the ground beside them. More trees falling after that. Brian forced himself to stand up and pulled still shocked Devin with him. As soon as they stood up, another tree fell onto their direction. They jumped to the side right in time to let it landed in front of them.

He looked at his surroundings quickly. Moses was nowhere to be seen; in front of them Lauren shout something in frustration and she and Walker had to avoid another tree that ended up slamming the one that was already in the ground, cracking itself into two; and Joey was covering Bonnie from the left side of the recent fallen tree as he stood in front of her protectively but also looked shocked himself.

Devin had talked to him about their plan with District 4's tributes and when his eyes met Joey's, they knew they had the same thought.

"Let's go!" Brian grabbed Devin's hand and both of them ran toward East, knowing that Joey and Bonnie would do the same thing toward the opposite direction.

From that moment, there was no more alliance between the Careers; just as the game was supposed to be played.

"They broke the alliance!" Walker shouted to his partner as more trees fell on the others. He dragged himself up and grabbed the sword he dropped earlier when he almost crushed by the trunks to find Joey, Bonnie, Brian, and Devin abandoned them and ran toward different directions. However, instead of chasing them, Lauren leaped off some trunks that blocking her way and headed to the river. "Wait, where are _you_ going?"

"Leave them! We had to kill Moses first!" He could hear Lauren's voice yelled back to him before disappearing behind the pile of fallen trees.

Walker threw a doubtful look to where his former allies escaped, and then to where she headed. With a frustration growl, he finally jumped off the trunks and chased his partner; leaving the other Career tributes behind.

Next time he met them, he would make sure to greet them with District 2's manners.

* * *

Moses ran zigzag through the trees toward the open space and whenever he passed a tree, he set it so that it would fall behind him. He dared to look through his shoulder and saw Lauren was chasing him; the trees managed to stall her for about ten meters from him but she was a quick runner and could easily dodged the falling trees. Physical ability was not his potential strength since the very beginning.

Suddenly, a knife flew passed his left ear and ended up piercing the last tree that separated him from Arielle. Just as he went out from the forest, he typed in another command and the moment he finished pressing the enter button there was a loud explosions behind him.

The impact of the blast threw him off the ground to the rough surface of sharp stones. He groaned in pain and felt something warm soaked his right palm; it must have been torn when he used it to support him from the rough landing. All he could hear was the constant buzzing inside his ears. He shook his head to clear his vision and was relieved the device was still on his possession. He did not wait to see if the explosion killed the Careers, though. Instead, he focused his gaze on what lies before him as he tried to get back on his feet.

Moses finally could get a clear vision on Arielle. She froze by the side of the river. Her hand clutched onto a bloody stone in defensive pose, as if hoping that it would scare him off. Then his gaze fell on the man at her feet. The color of his jacket told him that it was her partner; and he was already dead.

When her eyes met him, there was no warmth that sparked in the Parade. There was no genuine smile when she saw him coming out from the woods.

All he could see in those eyes was fear.

He did not have time for this. They needed to get out from there. Fast.

"Arielle," he took a careful step toward her but she also took a step backward.

Suddenly she broke the eye contact and looked through his shoulder in terror.

"_LOOK OUT!_"

All of a sudden, pain erupted from his right shoulder. He screamed in agony and could not help but fell back to the ground; the device slipped from his fingers and landed with a loud noise next to him. Blood was gushed out from the wound and immediately soaking his jacket.

With his watery eyes, he glanced to his back to see Lauren stood at the edge of what was left from the forest. One hand clutched on a knife while the other hung limply on her side. The blood that was oozing from her head did not lessen the dose of murderous look in her eyes.

He was going to tell Arielle to run when he saw her already on his side and tried to lift him up.

"No, no, leave me . . ."

"Be quiet and help me!"

Moses stumbled from the pain but trying his best to help her dragging himself up. Another knife flew passed Arielle's head this time and made his heart skipped a beat.

"The device," Moses hissed urgently toward the forgotten item when he had managed to find his feet. Arielle scooped it without an answer and held it while she put his arm across her shoulder to support him.

"Cross the river," Moses urged them toward the stream but she did not follow his steps.

"But the stream . . ."

He pulled her arm that held the tablet and quickly jabbed commands into it. The stream suddenly looked calmer and the volume was slowly decreasing. Arielle's eyes widened at the sudden change but she did not say anything; she only brought him to the water with her.

Moses' vision was getting blurred from the blood lost. The short journey seemed endless for both of them. The farther they crossed the river, the more dependent he was to her. He could not suppress a groan each time they moved; he could almost feel the knife was still protruding from his shoulder and shifted painfully everytime he tried to move his arm.

"Almost there," Arielle breathed out the encouragement on his ear. She, too, sounded tired from the short journey already.

When his head lolled to his side, he glanced at the forest one more time and saw a figure slumped near the burnt fire. It seemed that he managed to injure Lauren, after all.

After what seemed to be hours, they finally managed to get to the other side of the river. After Arielle pulled him off the water, he typed a command and instantly the stream was back to its normal volume and strength. They did not waste any time and quickly continued to walk forward, toward yet another forest that both of them had not explored.

"Thanks," Moses muttered the words in relieve. The sound of chaos behind them began to fade away as they went deeper into the depth of the forest. They did not risk they luck and kept walking; trying to put a great distance between them and the Careers.

After a moment, she finally answered him.

"I'm the one who should say that," she said, this time with a small smile on her lips.

* * *

End of Chapter 20

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review! I'll try to update as fast as I can and review will definitely help :3


	21. Chapter 21 - The Confrontation

A/N : Another update guys! Warning for a bit gory scene, and blood. I think that's all, for now ...

Thank you for the nice reviews, faves, and new followers! Special thanks to _starkidllamas-llama_ for spreading this and earning me some lovely feedbacks from her watchers, you're the best!

Thanks again for reading and I hope you like this chapter!

* * *

Joey and Bonnie were thrown out of the ground when suddenly a loud explosion blasted from behind them. They were lucky that the trees were protecting them from most of the impact, but nevertheless it still knocked them off.

Thick smoke started to cover the entire forest. From his side, Bonnie began to cough heavily from the lack of oxygen. Joey himself felt as if his lungs were on fire; and also warm liquid trickled down from his hair to be added to his bad luck list.

As he groaned and tried to drag himself up, he looked through his shoulder and found the part of the forest they just left were being consumed by fire. Whatever exploded earlier must have been causing the sparks.

They need to move quickly before the fire caught up with them or worse, there was going to be another explosion.

"Bonnie, you alright?" Joey knelt beside his still coughing partner and tried to check on her condition. Her right sleeve was torn badly from the flying debris and tinted her sea storm green jacket with blood, making his heart clenched at the sight.

In quick move, he took her backpack, moved the water and first aid kit box to his, and leave the rest to lessen the weight he carried. Then, slowly, he maneuvered her left arm to his shoulder and slowly dragged her up with him while using his spear to support him.

"Wait," she gasped, making a sign to her abandoned bow and quiver before coughing again.

"Leave it, we need to get out of here _now_!"

As they was about to walk away, few rabbits and squirrels were passing them, possibly to a safer place. Joey followed one of them and rely their fate on the animals' instinct.

They walked slowly but the crackling of burnt trees started to fade away on their back. Joey prayed that there would not be another explosion and luckily they had not heard one since the last one. From time to time he glanced at Bonnie; she had stopped coughing but blood still dripping from his right hand and her face started to look pale.

They kept walking for about an hour until Joey saw something white covering the ground in front of them.

"Is that . . . _snow_?" Joey squinted his eyes in disbelief.

Apparently, he was right. They had reached the other side of the forest and at the open space they were heading to lay a small mountain covered with snow. The air suddenly turned colder on the contrary of the heat they just left.

Joey helped Bonnie rested on the tree where the snow started to appear. While she was catching her breath, Joey put his spear on the ground then knelt beside her. He fetched the first aid kit and a bottle of water from his bag.

"Here," he unscrewed the cap and gave the bottle to her, which she accepted gratefully and gulping it in a second. Joey then walked toward the nearest pile of snow and scooped some of it before going back to her.

"Can you take off your jacket?" he asked as he knelt on her right side with the snow. Bonnie nodded; after putting down the bottle, slowly she unzipped the jacket and tried to slip her right hand from it. She bit her lips to hold back groan when the blood made the fabric stuck with the torn skin beneath it when she tried to pull it off.

"Okay, forget it. Just leave it there," Joey quickly stopped her when he saw the problem. Gently, he pressed the snow onto the wound and held his hands there. Bonnie gasped but did not dare to look at him; she simply continued to bite his lips and concentrated on not crying.

Joey maintained the position for a couple of minutes before letting it fall into the ground and took out the bandage. He moved quickly by wrapping it above the jacket, no longer trying to pull it off. He heard Bonnie sighed slowly in relieve and let herself leaned back in less tense pose.

"Thanks" she murmured slowly as he finished trying the bandage. Joey shrugged it off; he leaned back beside her and took the bottle which he emptied it in a second.

"What just happened back there?" he said in disbelief, now having time to think of it.

"Quarter Quell. That's what happened."

Neither was talking for a moment after that, each tribute trying to cope what had happened few hours ago. It was supposed to be a clean hunting mission, now that they got the tracking device. They did not expect to end up like this. Joey considered themselves lucky, though, for getting out of there only with concussion and bleeding arms.

One wrong step and their names were going to be announced as dead tributes.

* * *

"I still think this is a stupid idea, Elona," Chris grunted, removing the knife to the other hand as he used the right one to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

"You're the one who stupid," she retorted back. "The Capitol won't just _blow out_ an area if there are no tributes near it. This is our chances to get more supply from the injured ones. Besides, no one will think we're going toward there so stop your yapping already!"

"I just hope whoever we met later have at least food with them. I'm starving," he sighed.

Elona did not appear to be listening to him and continued to talk."I'm pretty confident about us winning this, Chris. Sixteen tributes left, can't you believe it! No one will see it coming," she finished his words with a big grin on her face. "No one will see us as a threat. Let the Careers hunt the others and then kill each other; and when they are weak enough, when no one will interfere, we _kill _them."

"Now you sound like them."

"I'll do anything to go back, including become their pion."

Chris rolled his eyes and continued to walk. Her ambitious actions like now started to frightening him. If she was not his partner, he would definitely kill her on the bloodbath.

He tried to avoid talking to her and pretended looking at their surrounding. That was when he saw something on the grass on his right.

"Elona, look!" he abruptly stopped her and pointed at the ground they were passing at.

A trail of blood was heading toward the West part of the forest.

"See?" she put a smug victorious smile on her face as her eyes trailing the blood.

"We got them."

* * *

"At least we broke the alliance," Joey suddenly said, breaking the silence.

Bonnie sighed. "But I lost my bow and arrows."

"I save you the knives, don't worry," he tried to comfort her but her attitude suddenly went back to the old Bonnie from the train.

"You don't get it, do you? That weapon was like my right arm! I can't believe you prefer saving the _knives _instead."

"You know I was a little bit occupied that moment, right? Trying to save _you_, remember?" Anger started to boil inside him but he tried his best to hold it down.

"Save me to die next time! You know I can't use a damn knife! And there you are, carrying a spear like an idiot. Why don't you leave it instead? I think a Victor's Blood will be just fine with any kind of weapon." Her voice was a bit weak to call it as shouting but the words did not fail to hurt him nevertheless.

"Well, sorry if I thought you value the bow more than your own life," Joey retorted sarcastically, now moving away from her side to face her instead. "Next time I'll . . ."

When he shifted his gaze, he suddenly caught a flash of Foie Gras Grey jacket from behind a tree, about fifteen meters from them. He cursed when the color did not disappear and instead splitting into two tributes, who now ran toward their direction.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked him confusedly when he scrambled to his feet and searching for something from the backpack.

"We've been trailed." He held the set of knives in front of her while picking up his spear. "Find a place to hide; I'll hold them."

Bonnie's expression was a mix between fear and hesitation when she saw the upcoming tributes and back to the knives. "But I don't . . . "

"Yes, you can!" he shouted in frustration, shoving the weapon onto her uninjured hand. "_GO!_"

She quickly pulled herself up with the help from the tree and moved slowly toward the snowy area. From the corner of his eyes, he saw her clutching her right arm while holding the knives on the same time. Hoping that Bonnie could escape, he turned his gaze back to their enemies.

Now that they were getting closer to Joey, he got a clearer vision on them. He recognized them as the tributes from Ten, Elona and Chris he thought; he saw them wandering at the combat station after the Careers left it. It seemed that they managed to get something from the Cornucopia before they monopolized it; both of them were having a big knife on their hand.

Elona was the first one to lunge at him. Without any hesitation or fear in her eyes, she swung the knife toward him. Joey moved quickly by blocking it with his spear and twisted it in the air making a slashing move to force her back, but she bowed her body and continued to fight back viciously.

Chris soon caught up with his partner but to Joey's fear he did not stop to help her but instead he ran passed him toward Bonnie's direction.

"_Hey!_" Joey was ready to leave her and ran after the other one but the distraction earned him a scratch on his left arm and torn his jacket.

"Going somewhere?" she asked, grinned like a lunatic.

Joey dropped the entire '_I-can't-fight-a-girl_' attitude and went all out after that. He stabbed the spear onto her direction but again she sneaked away from it and almost got him again if he did not change the spear's direction to block her knife.

After exchanging attacks few times, Joey managed to get even with her by making a big scar on her right leg and upper arm, but she still had not given up yet. Few times he took a worry glance to his back to find Bonnie or Chris but he saw nothing. For a non Career tribute, Elona was pretty good with the weapon. He knew she was only stalling him here so Chris could kill Bonnie then helped him after that.

Bonnie was right; he should take the bow instead of the spear. He never realized that he was not that good at using one until the very moment.

With that conclusion in his mind, he threw the spear toward her direction and without bothering if it landed on the target or not, he ran toward Elona empty handed.

Elona's eyes widened from shock for a second but she recovered quickly and raised her knife to anticipate him. When he went inside her weapon's reach, she lunged toward him but Joey smacked her hand hard and knocked the knife off to the ground. She tried to throw a punch but Joey caught her fist and twisted it until it made a sickening crack. Elona screamed in pain but Joey did not stop there; he pushed her onto the ground and pinned her on her back. She frantically kicked her legs to get him off her but he planted both of his knees firmly on both side of her body and locked her there. His right hand held both of her hands while the other searching for Elona's knife.

For the first time since he saw Elona, he sensed fear on her; but still, she refused to go down without a fight or beg for mercy. Joey gritted his teeth as he tried to hold both of her rebellious slender wrists, broken or not. His fingers finally found the knife and with that he raised his hand above her.

"_JOEY!_"

Bonnie's broken voice made his mind blank for a second. He turned his head to find her but again he found no one. The voice was pretty clear, which meant that she was not too far from him.

He looked down to Elona again. His moral problem that he had since before the game came back. He knew what he should do, but he just could not. Then again, Bonnie needed him right now and he was wasting their time.

"Your friend is going to die and here you are, having a moral dilemma," Elona laughed soundlessly despite the tears that smeared her face, recognized his hesitation. "_How cute_."

Joey brought down the knife's butt and slammed it hard to her head, which instantly shut her up as she passed out.

Without wasting more time, Joey ran toward the direction Bonnie headed earlier still carrying the knife with him. His boots immediately sank into the snow but kept running forward, following the footprints that apparently headed to a lower hill. The footprints soon accompanied by drops of blood, much to his worry.

"_Bonnie!_" Joey shouted from the top of his lungs, running faster when the amount of blood on the snow was increasing worriedly.

_Please_ _be safe. Please be safe . . ._

After what seemed like a year he circled the hill he finally, _finally_ found them.

The sight made his whole body frozen in pure horror.

Bonnie was slumped on the ground, hand clutching onto one of the knives he gave her but looked ready to pass out any time soon. The snow around her was red with her blood that oozing from her already injured arm and the new one on her waist. Chris, on the other hand, was standing above her. Joey could only look at his back but the way he stood limply showed that Bonnie also managed to hurt him.

Joey stood only few meters from behind Chris and it seemed that both of them had not notice his presence yet. He carefully walked slowly toward them; knife was ready when he heard Chris talking to Bonnie.

"You Careers are so arrogant," he wheezed the word, sounded out of breath. "Elona was right; we can actually win this."

"Joey," Bonnie gasped, still calling for him. Her voice was almost gone but she did not stop; Joey's heart sunk every time she said his name but he did not dare to move carelessly when the man stood too near to her with a knife was still on his hand.

"He won't come!" he shouted suddenly. "Elona probably have killed him by now, or maybe he ran away. I bet for the last one since you're just a bunch of cowards who are lucky to have the big weapons."

Joey now stood less than a meter from Chris and his eyes suddenly met with Bonnie's. She blinked few times to see if she was hallucinating or not. Joey put a finger on his lips and that was when she let tears fell from her eyes and sobbed with relief.

"What are you . . ."

Before he could finish his words, Joey grabbed onto Chris' shoulder and stabbed his back with Elona's knife.

"You just lost the bet," Joey spat it on his ear and gave a twist on the knife. Chris gasped in shock and when Joey pulled out the knife, he dropped unceremoniously to the ground followed by the sound of cannon echoing on the air in the next second.

Joey threw the knife away and quickly came to Bonnie's aid. "Bonnie, are you okay?" He dropped himself in front of her and let her head rest on his shoulder while he supported her and tried to stop the bleeding on her waist at the same time. "God, I'm sorry I'm too late!"

"'s kay," she murmured tiredly. "Sorry, for earlier."

"Just forget it, okay?" he told her, leaned his head to her head and gave a hug they both needed.

Another cannon suddenly exploded, announcing another dead tribute for that day. Joey did not care who it was for that time.

All that matter was it was not for Bonnie.

* * *

"I can't believe he didn't kill her," Jamie frowned, coming from behind a tree as Joey left Elona for Bonnie. Jeff appeared from next to her and both of them approached the unconscious female tribute, observing her.

"They should teach their Careers how to take off their heart first before learning anything about killing," Jeff shook his head in slight disgust. He squatted beside Elona while pulling out his cleaver from the jacket and positioned it on her neck.

"No matter, we'll do him the favor." With that, he ended her life in just one movement and the cannon blasted above them.

"Should we go after him?" Jamie asked in casual tone, looking toward the direction where Joey disappeared just now.

"Nah," Jeff said, now stood up and put his cleaver back to its place. "The game hasn't even begun. It would be a shame if the strongest ones were dead already, wouldn't it?"

* * *

I hope that wasn't too gory for your taste. Please let me know what you think by reviewing!

Spolier : Next chapter will be a confrontation between District 4 and District 12, you know where this would be heading to right? ;)


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